New SAS® Curriculum Pathways® release most significant ever

Maps to Common Core State Standards; improves middle school resources, usability, design

CARY, NC – The latest release of SAS® Curriculum Pathways® online education resource includes the most significant enhancements since its 1998 debut. Available at no cost to all US educators, the product now has middle school resources and maps English language arts and math resources to both state and Common Core State Standards.

Forty-five states have agreed to adopt the Common Core Standards, a state-led effort to provide a clear and consistent framework to prepare students for college and work. Current standards address English and math.

“With SAS Curriculum Pathways, teachers can easily integrate engaging content into instruction while meeting Common Core State Standards,” said Bruce Friend, Director of SAS Curriculum Pathways.

Used by more than 50,000 teachers and 12,000 schools, SAS Curriculum Pathways provides interactive, standards-based resources in English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies and Spanish for grades 6-12 in traditional, virtual and home schools. By doing, seeing and listening, students access information and gain insights unavailable through conventional methods. Quality content engages students and can be adapted to meet varied needs.

A colorful redesign, searchable and resizable resources, integrated professional development, social media sharing and best practices for teachers enhance usability and enrich the experience for educators and students. Numerous new resources join more than 200 Interactive Tools, 200 “read, research and respond” guided questions, 600 Web Lessons and 70 Audio Tutorials.

New features include:

*Exploring Poetry Series – Sports, Families, Nature: Using interactive tools to analyze and interpret poems, students enhance reading skills and build comprehension through audio, video, vocabulary and interpretive aids.
*New Audio Tutorials: Social Studies – Australia, New Zealand, Islands of Oceania: Through audio, images and illustrations, students learn geography, history, flora and fauna. A final quiz tests understanding.
*Punctuation Rules! Students learn through humorous audio, animated text, interactive practice and quizzes.
*Spanish Writing Tablet: Students choose from four interactive templates (blank, letter, invitation, conversation) to demonstrate Spanish writing skills.
*Spanish Language Builders – Grammatical Elements: Students test their knowledge of verbs and adjectives through hearing and reading about culture, people and places.
*Flash Cards – Integers 0 to 12, Decimals: Middle school students strengthen math fundamentals using interactive flash cards containing basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of integers 0 through 12 and decimals.
*Virtual Lab – Seasons: Students investigate how Earth’s motions cause seasons, observe how these motions affect our view of the sun, and examine seasonal changes and events. Students examine simulations, collect and analyze data, and answer related questions.
*Tool-Based Lessons: These resources incorporate SAS Interactive Tools, like Writing Reviser and the Interactive Atlas. For example, in Abraham Lincoln Shows How to Choose Strong Verbs, students analyze the Gettysburg Address and apply what they learn to revise a short essay.

Katie Higgins, an English teacher and 2011 Mooresville (NC) High School Teacher of the Year, is passionate about SAS Curriculum Pathways. “The new version is ahead of the game in education. Students are more engaged with interactive tools that demand higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills, not just rote memorization.”

Higgins finds Writing Reviser particularly valuable. Writing Reviser is a resource that helps students ask the kind of questions experienced writers ask automatically, to develop the judgment that is essential to effective writing. It allows her to focus on topic-specific issues rather than each student’s individual writing problems.

“Writing Reviser not only encourages students to review their work but motivates them to take responsibility for improvement. Instead of spending an hour editing the rough draft of each research paper, I spend only 15 to 20 minutes. I can then give students feedback on their level of analysis and the effectiveness of their arguments, rather than grammar, style and structure.”

About SAS
SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions delivered within an integrated framework, SAS helps customers at more than 50,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know® .