Turnitin Partners with Education Council to Develop Common Core Grading Rubrics

Correlated rubrics to be available in GradeMark to assess student writing

OAKLAND, Calif., June 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Turnitin, the leader in originality checking and online grading, has partnered with the English Professional Learning Council to develop writing rubrics aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) that will better prepare secondary students for college-level course work. The Council, formed in 2011 to develop high-quality curricular materials that close the skills gap, is comprised of educators from Saddleback College, the University of California (Irvine), California State University (Fullerton), and the Orange County Department of Education.

"K-12 districts need help effectively implementing the Common Core State Standards. We're thrilled to work with the English Professional Learning Council to address the pressing need for CCSS-aligned curricular and assessment materials," said Jason Chu , senior education manager for Turnitin.

The Council will assist Turnitin in developing six CCSS-aligned writing rubrics for grades 9-10 and 11-12 for use in their GradeMark online grading and writing evaluation tool. Instructors using GradeMark will be able to attach a standard CCSS rubric to any writing assignment to convey their expectations to students, assess submitted work, and track student progress. The six rubrics, available to Turnitin users in the Fall of 2012, will also be offered more broadly as an open educational resource for instructors and institutions nationwide.

About the English Professional Learning Council
The Council is an independent organization of prominent educators from both higher and secondary educational institutions. The primary sponsor is Saddleback College. Members include:

• Debbie Sidler , Mission Viejo Middle School, Saddleback Valley Unified SD
• Sarah Schaeffer , Thurston Middle School , Laguna Beach Unified SD
• Dawn Lewis , Aliso Niguel High School , Capistrano Unified SD
• Colleen Hartnett , Tesoro High School , Capistrano Unified SD
• Amanda Jerome , University of California, Irvine
• Myrtice Rowe , Orange County Department of Education
• Mary Funaoka , Orange County Department of Education
• Renee Bangerter , Saddleback College
• Julie Chan , California State University, Fullerton

About Turnitin
Turnitin is the world's leading web-based solution for plagiarism prevention, used by educators worldwide to check students' papers for originality, to enable web-based peer review and for digital grading of student work. The Turnitin product family includes iThenticate, the leader in plagiarism detection in research, publishing and other commercial markets. Together, these solutions check millions of documents each month and are used in over 100 countries. Turnitin is a registered trademark of iParadigms, LLC, headquartered in Oakland, CA with an international office located in Newcastle, United Kingdom. iParadigms is backed by Warburg Pincus. http://www.turnitin.com and http://www.ithenticate.com

All products and services mentioned in this document are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Turnitin

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