Our News page covers PCG-CRM company news items, announcements of staff-authored books and articles, staff presentations, and items important to our clients in the education field. For more information about any listed news item, please contact us through our Contact page.

PCG-CRM Takes Leadership Role in CTE
December 2009
PCG Education’s Center for Resource Management (PCG-CRM) continues to take a leadership role in literacy for career and technical education schools. In November, Julie Meltzer was joined by client partners from Maine in presenting two sessions at the Association of Career and Technical Education’s (ACTE) National Conference in Nashville, TN. PCG-CRM has provided on-going technical assistance, teacher professional development, and leadership consulting for the Maine Department of Education and the Maine Administrators of Career and Technical Education (MACTE) since 2005. In addition, ACTE included examples of PCG-CRM’s technical assistance and professional development materials in its recently released DVD, CTE-Academic Integration.

Report cites PCG Education’s Work in the CTE Literacy Field
November 2009
ACTE Issue Brief Brief
A new Issue Brief by the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), "CTE's Role in Adolescent Literacy," explains how career and technical education (CTE) can increase adolescent literacy engagement and achievement. Noteworthy on page five of the brief is the account of the role Public Consulting Group’s Center for Resource Management played to develop Maine's professional development activities to address the literacy challenge. This publication features work PCG-CRM has done over the past five years in Maine.

ACTE 2009 Annual Convention and Career Tech Expo
November 19-21, 2009
Nashville, TN
Association for Career and Technical Education
Julie Meltzer will be presenting at this year's convention, the theme of which is "The New Rhythm of CTE." Julie will be presenting with Lora Downing, Director Career and Technical Education for the Maine Department of Education; the Maine DOE is a client of PCG. Their presentations are entitled "Literacy and Learning: Maine's State Wide Initiative Brings CTE Teachers Aboard!" and "Literacy Strategies Work in CTE Classes, Shop & Field Operations to Develop Critical Thinking." The convention is aimed at educators who are passionate about career and technical education and recognize its importance to our nation’s future.

The 2009 Technology Conference
October 28-29, 2009
Foxboro, MA
M.A.S.S. and MassCUE
Stephen Smith will be presenting on Wednesday, October 28 at The 2009 Technology Conference. The Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents (M.A.S.S.) and MassCUE (Massachusetts Computer Using Educators) are co-sponsoring the Annual Technology Conference in Foxboro, MA. This year's theme is "Tackling 21st-century Learning." Conference attendees are expected to include superintendents, administrators, technology directors, K-12 practitioners, and higher ed and preservice teachers from all over the greater New England area. 

IES Summer Forum and Data Conference
July 31, 2009
Washington, DC
Institute of Education Sciences (IES)

Erin MacIntire will present at the IES National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) annual Summer Data Conference. Erin’s session, Moving Beyond the Technology: Data Use and the Massachusetts Education Data Warehouse, will be presented jointly with PCG-CRM'S client Helene Bettencourt, Manager of Data Collection for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MA ESE). The session will be presented to over 50 state and district data leaders. Participants will learn about the series of professional development workshops PCG developed for the SY09 MA ESE Education Data Warehouse launch. Erin and Helene will explain how the workshop series promoted widespread and meaningful use of the state’s data warehouse and demonstrate how technology solutions such as the Education Data Warehouse are most successful when integrated with professional development that supports effective use of data by educators at all levels.

NAF 2009 Institute for Staff Development
July 8, 2009 Phoenix, AZ
National Academy Foundation
The National Academy Foundation will hold their annual Institute for Staff Development and Leadership Summit in July, with the theme of "Students Today, Leaders Tomorrow." PCG-CRM's Dr. Julie Meltzer will present on "What Academy Leaders Need to Know and Be Able to Do To Improve Literacy and Learning." This highly interactive session introduces academy leaders to A Leadership Model for Improving Adolescent Literacy, a research-grounded model that shows how a systemic focus on literacy can be used as a lever for improving student academic and career success. Participants will examine what literacy looks like in each of the career areas focused on by NAF and the roles and responsibilities of academy leaders in supporting literacy rich teaching and learning to take place including how to help students understand how important it is to develop proficiency as readers, writers and learners. Participants will receive a copy of the book Taking Action on Adolescent Literacy (ASCD, 2007) as well as a packet of session handouts and templates.

Popular Growth Model Article Authored by PCG-CRM’s Rachel Slaughter
July 2, 2009

The PCG-authored article, "Measuring Middle School Achievement Growth With Student Growth Percentile Methodology," has been downloaded over 100 times, reports University of Connecticut's DigitalCommons site. Rachel Slaughter, Senior Associate at PCG-CRM, presented the paper at the annual New England Research Association (NERA) meeting in last fall. Rachel demonstrated how to apply PCG-CRM's newly developed Student Growth Model that enables a more fine-grained analysis of achievement growth over time at the individual student, school, district, and program level.

2009 Principals’ Academy “Breakthrough Leadership, Breakthrough Results”!
June 1-5, 2009
Memphis, TN
Principals' Academy hosted by Memphis City Schools
Public Consulting Group will present an update on the ED Plan implementation currently in progress with Memphis City Schools (MCS) including a more general discussion of the RTI consulting services it is providing, perspective on making RTI successful at the district level, and the increasing interest in personal learning plans and corresponding need for a system to manage intervention information. The Memphis ED Plan project builds on existing Easy IEP technology to support electronic Graduation Plans, 504 Plans, and Response to Intervention identification, planning, measuring and reporting. Christen Hunter (from PCG's Nashville office) and PCG-CRM's Dr. Melvina Phillips, were joined by MCS Elementary school principal Shawn Page to present: "Helping Principals and Teachers Manage Data: Grad Plans, 504 Plans and RTI." 

PCG Canada's 2nd Annual Montreal SIP Symposium
May 26, 2009
Montreal, Canada
SkoVision
Back by popular demand, PCG Canada is hosting its 2nd annual symposium on School Improvement Planning (SIP) in Montreal on Tuesday, May 26. PCG-CRM's Executive Director, David Ronka, will present a seminar on "Achieving Data Quality, Data Capacity, and Data Culture in your District." While at the symposium, visit our booth for a free SkoVision™ demo or just to chat about school improvement planning! What is SkoVision? School improvement plans have become a vital mechanism through which the public holds schools responsible for student achievement. SkoVision, a school improvement planning software, was designed specifically for K-12 educators. It transforms the one-time, paper-based improvement planning exercise into a significantly more efficient and effective on-going improvement process. SkoVision's centralized database and "principal friendly" web interface allows for a team based approach. Best practices can easily be shared among schools and results can be easily tracked, analyzed, and shared among stakeholders.

IRA's 54th Annual Convention & Reading Research Conference
May 3-7, 2009
Minneapolis, MN
International Reading Association
The Association supports literacy professionals through a wide range of resources, advocacy efforts, volunteerism, and professional development activities. At this year's convention, PCG-CRM's Dr. Julie Meltzer, along with with Judi Irvin, Executive Director, National Literacy Project, will hold two sessions. On May 5, Julie and Judi will present "Putting Systems in Place to Support Content Literacy and Learning in Middle and High Schools." On May 7, Julie will partner with longtime PCG-CRM client Mark Hatch from Messalonskee Middle School (Oakland, ME) to present "Lighting the Way to Literacy Change: Middle School Success Stories."

Professional Development Workshop
May 1, 2009
Northfield, MA
Hampshire Educational Collaborative, Inc.
Members of PCG-CRM's staff, Stephen Smith and Stephanie Ridge, will deliver a one-day professional development workshop entitled "Achieving Data Quality, Data Capacity, and Data Culture in Your District." The workshop will be focused on data use best practices within the context of PCG-CRM's Data Quality, Capacity, and Culture framework. Participants will learn and apply a powerful framework for school- and district-wide data use; use the Cycle of Inquiry to investigate educational questions using the data; identify the key factors in leading a data-driven organization; learn how to build effective school and district data teams; and develop steps to improve data quality, data capacity, and data culture in their district.

Defining Literacy in the 21st Century
April 14, 2009

A recent article in a Plymouth, MA newspaper focused on PCG-CRM's Julie Meltzer and her work on literacy skills for the 21st century. "We're very excited to have Dr. Julie Meltzer here to help us with our reading initiative so we have a common language of learning, not only at PCIS but also throughout the district at both the middle schools and high schools," commented the school's Reading Leadership Team coordinator. Julie met with members of the four middle and high school leadership teams for the first time last week. She and others at PCG will return to the district throughout the year to continue their support. Julie is a native of Plymouth and was thrilled to be working in her home town.

Data-Driven Decision Making Leadership Summit 2009 January 23, 2009 Worcester, MA – Clark University Members of PCG-CRM's staff, David Ronka and Dr. Melvina Phillips presented a seminar entitled "Data-Driven Decision Making Leadership Summit 2009: Achieving Data Quality, Data Capacity, and Data Culture in Your School or District." Attendees were from school districts around Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The feedback from the participants was overwhelmingly positive. The pictures below show David and Melvina in the thick of things, facilitating a very motivating and engaging workshop. For information on this Leadership Summit, or future ones, please contact us through our Contact page

PCG-CRM Article Published on OH Educational Website
September 2008
Ohio Resource Center - In Perspective Magazine  

Everyone acknowledges that improving students’ literacy habits and skills is a good thing. However, content teachers at local middle and high schools do not always think it is their job. The article, Designing Effective Content-Literacy Professional Development,  was written by Julie Meltzer and Melvina Phillips.