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CATEGORY: Assessment |
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Expanded the number of devices usable for collecting classroom walkthrough (CWT) data, the application allows users to gather instruction data through classroom walkthroughs on a netbook, laptop, or tablet PC, with or without an internet connection.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 Mar 2010
The new feature of Blackboard's communication platform lets teachers communicate easily with students' families - in their preferred language - helping to improve parent involvement and student engagement in the classroom, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Mar 2010
An online learning community is a place designed to help users achieve learning goals of some sort through collaborative partnerships, including varying degrees of social networking and internet-based and computer-mediated communication. Charlie Doe takes a look this month at some of the more formal versions of online learning communities—often called learning management systems (LMSs)—which are usually developed by professors or teachers to achieve academic goals via web-based services.
In this age of easy access to Google, standardized testing, and AP curriculums, why should we teach research skills? Don't students "know everything" about research and the web? Hardly! Carolyn Foote has a lot to say about this, and even more about why teaching research skills counts for even more today than in the past. What we're striving for, she says, is student empowerment.
Distributed scoring uses online services to break down physical barriers historically associated with scoring large-scale assessments, enabling experienced scorers to effectively score assessments from home.
News/Breaking News - Posted 22 Feb 2010
For February 15, 2010: Introduce your middle school math students to topics that align with NCTM standards with the click of a mouse at the subscription-based Brainingcamp website.
Cyberbee Web Pick/Cyberbee's Web Picks - Posted 15 Feb 2010
By
Linda C. Joseph
Lexia Learning Systems has expanded its offering of "Lexia Lessons" and "Lexia Skill Builders" as a part of its Lexia Reading program. The program includes targeted practice, embedded assessment, scripted lesson plans, and offline practice to help students at all reading levels achieve proficiency.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Feb 2010
This newest version of the online standards mastery program offers enhanced assessment, instruction, communication and collaboration tools to help schools maximize their return on investment.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Jan 2010
With Time To Know, the teacher guides the class using an engaging curriculum that is integrated with tools for classroom management, planning, assessment, and collaboration.
News/Breaking News - Posted 22 Jan 2010
The bilingual version of the online assessment and instruction program to evaluate student performance on state standards should help struggling students.
News/Breaking News - Posted 20 Jan 2010
Both incorporate MIND's visual approach using spatial temporal reasoning. This game design continues to be rap¬idly adopted across the country, and to deliver remarkable results for schools, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Jan 2010
The new version of GradeCam is the first online assessment solution to use a document camera to grade paper-based quizzes and tests, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Jan 2010
The new features are intended to help schools eliminate paper waste and conserve energy while saving money by offering parents more choices.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Jan 2010
Developed for the National Center for Learning Disabilities and now supported by norm-referenced standardized scores, this research-based screening tool is designed to give early childhood educators and clinicians the information that they need to put young learners on the path to building a firm foundation in literacy skills.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Jan 2010
With its new features, Learning Plans on Demand is a more powerful assessment tool that ties directly into hundreds of embedded tutorials for individualized learning, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Jan 2010
The newest version of Inspiration's flagship software is designed to build 21st century communication and thinking skills, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Jan 2010
Educators have begun to shun the monolithic basal approach to teaching reading, opting for a more robust mix of specialized print and technology-based resources that provide intensive, dynamic, motivating methods that children embrace and enjoy. These print and technology tools must use student data as a cornerstone of an approach that intensifies and individualizes instruction. Find out more from Lexia Learning's Bob McCabe.
According to the SIIA's Vision K-20 survey, the lowest level for its Five Measures of Progress is in the use of technology-based assessment tools, with an average score of just 46%. Clearly, there's room for improvement! And since knowing more about these tools is a good first step to using them to your advantage, Victor Rivero brings you a sampling of some of the more recent excellent products and services you may find useful when it comes to gaining much-needed assistance with assessment.
Sally Finley reviews Achiever!, a student assessment program.
The consortium is designed to offer a research-based approach for transforming chronically struggling schools into successful learning environments without requiring mass dismissals of staff, school closures or turnover to charters or outside management organizations.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Nov 2009
The guides offer best practices on building standards, assessments, curriculum and instruction, professional development, and learning environments.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Nov 2009
The new “clicker” device provides students with additional feedback during interactive polling via a small LCD screen.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Oct 2009
The new web-based application allows educators to develop assessments aligned to state standards for use with Turning’s various student response applications including TurningPoint and TurningPoint AnyWhere.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Oct 2009
The comprehensive K-12+ program aligns academic skills for students with moderate to severe intellectual and developmental disabilities, to help special education and other teachers focus on standards-based learning for this group.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Sep 2009
A 9-year-old girl is poised on the surface of the moon, a spaceship and stars in the background. Her fellow voyager, in the form of an orange, cylindrically shaped robot, responds to her conversation with an unintelligible mechanized beep. These two space pioneers are engaged in a lively discourse about the nature and origin of constellations. Is it a Nickelodeon special? The latest remix of Lost in Space? A juvenile version of 2001: A Space Odyssey? Nope. Just business as usual as an elementary school class Johanna Riddle reports on produces another Pawprint Production educational video.
With WriteToLearn v5.3, teachers can now create their own topics to assign to their students. Beyond the broad assortment of essay writing activities in WriteToLearn, teachers can select from nearly 600 reading passages across subject areas for summary writing activities.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Aug 2009
The platform now includes curriculum mapping to the core concepts and critical skills found in standards, varied student assessments that provide timely data for teachers, Classroom Walkthroughs for measuring instructional practices against modern research, and a host of online learning modules for driving classroom instructional practice.
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Jul 2009
This latest release of the TetraData warehousing and analytics tools provides school districts with a convenient point-of-entry solution (Bronze level) and then builds upon that foundation with Silver and Gold levels, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Jul 2009
Offered through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, the new enhancements are part of the annual subscription fee.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Jul 2009
Developed in collaboration with LearningStation and Promethean, the assessment tool is designed to enable teachers to differentiate instruction and transform learning.
News/Breaking News - Posted 29 Jun 2009
Pinnacle Accelerated Learning offers districts a secure virtual learning environment.
News/Breaking News - Posted 26 Jun 2009
Iowa, Kansas, Maine, New Jersey, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Wisconsin have been recognized for incorporating knowledge and 21st Century Skills into their classrooms.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Jun 2009
Conspiracy Code offers an original learning environment where students can strengthen higher-order thinking, written communication, problem-solving, and collaborative skills, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 01 Jun 2009
Each title is a comprehensive review of subject matter delivered as an educational video and digital workbook.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 May 2009
Today, everything from the school lunch program to attendance rosters, telephone operations, and more can be handled by computer systems. And, of course, more and more student assessment can be managed (or at least scored) with computers, generating data results that can be used for additional software manipulation. Data management systems are developing enormous amounts of information that can be stored and then combined and additionally analyzed (or “mined” or “drilled”) for data-driven instructional leadership. This roundup takes a look at several products with different approaches to data-driven decision making.
Designed to help struggling, self-conscious readers become successful readers, the Reading Assistant reading intervention software combines speech recognition technology with scientifically-based interventions to help elementary and secondary students strengthen their reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
News/Breaking News - Posted 18 Mar 2009
The new version includes a Create Custom Resource tool, teacher and student communication tools, and enhanced batch enroll features.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Mar 2009
The service links curriculum, instruction, assessment, and digital media from Discovery Education streaming to support the learning needs of all students.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Mar 2009
Susan Hixson reviews Learning Plans on Demand, an online program that provides teaching tools for differentiating instruction, constructs response assessments, and offers tutorials and practice activities.
A review panel of educators and psychometricians have ensured the assessment provides valid and accurate data for elementary and middle school students, the announcement states.
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 Feb 2009
Study Island rolls out integration with Turning Technologies Response Technology to provide instant assessment of student learning.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Feb 2009
The student response provider rolls out comprehensive consulting services and expanded professional development programs.
News/Breaking News - Posted 04 Feb 2009
The mobile learning student response app for iPhone and iPod touch is designed to get students engaged in active learning and provide educators with instant assessment.
News/Breaking News - Posted 14 Jan 2009
The Assessment Management System is an online tool that allows teachers to track individual and group progress toward Grade-Level Goals as identified in the research-based program.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 Jan 2009
Chancery SMS 6.7 includes several key enhancements to five major functional areas including permanent records; health immunizations; elementary school attendance; security; and its customization framework.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Jan 2009
With the launch of PowerTeacher 1.5, the software is now available for integrated use with Chancery SMS - Pearson's SIS solution designed specifically to meet the needs of larger K-12 districts - in addition to use with PowerSchool Premier.
News/Breaking News - Posted 05 Jan 2009
The Seal assures educators that a product or resource is in alignment with ISTE’s National Educational Technology Standards (NETS), refreshed in 2007 to emphasize 21st century skills. Nearly all states use NETS for Students (NETS-S) in their curriculum planning and assessment.
News/Breaking News - Posted 02 Jan 2009
Media specialists everywhere have stories to tell about teachers who believe they no longer have time to teach their favorite units, collaborate, or use technology in educationally sound or creative ways. The combination of NCLB and other demands have created a situation where teachers have little time or interest in using technology beyond basic instructional management and easy-to-implement instructional tasks they are comfortable with. But you can help by bringing your creative ideas to your teachers! Read about two such great ideas in this month’s Media Center.
Teacher resources include scripted and printable lesson plans, offline student practice activities, and teacher training materials.
News/Breaking News - Posted 26 Nov 2008
The new title Sunburst’s series individualizes keyboarding instruction for students in grades K to 12 and increases practice time with access from the home.
News/Breaking News - Posted 18 Nov 2008
More than 3,000 students nationwide are being assessed with Learning.com’s newest assessment, designed to go beyond assessing whether students are proficient using technology tools.
News/Breaking News - Posted 12 Nov 2008
Much behavior in the teacher-librarian/media specialist community is too often driven by opinion and no data. And every class, every school, every library club, every community, is, or can be, different. However, when you are attempting to empower your learners to excel, it is incumbent on you to have an informed view of their technological bent. So Stephen Abram has devoted this month's column to providing you with a starting point for checking out where your students stand in the technological spectrum.
SAM Learning, publisher of Web-based curriculum for high school exit exam prep, now offers science content in biology, chemistry, and physics for SAM Learning.
News/Breaking News - Posted 29 Sep 2008
The current issue of Forbes magazine (9/15) includes an article titled “Teaching to the New Test” written by Harvard Business School professors Clayton Christensen and Michael Horn.
News/Cool Links - Posted 12 Sep 2008
The ISTE Classroom Observation Tool (ICOT) is a free online resource created to help guide teachers, administrators, and other educators as they observe and assess technology integration in classrooms.
Susan Hixson reviews an online test prep program for the SAT.
The tool encourages schools to rate their security against national benchmarks.
News/Breaking News - Posted 30 Jul 2008
CTB/McGraw-Hill’s TerraNova assessment now includes companion reports developed in partnership with CTB/McGraw-Hill and The Grow Network/McGraw-Hill.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Jul 2008
Pearson’s SuccessMaker combines research-based lessons with engaging animations to meet all students’ needs.
News/Breaking News - Posted 24 Jul 2008
RAPS 360 facilitates quicker and more effective diagnosis of K-10 reading gaps, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Jul 2008
At a time when the K–12 market is undergoing rapid growth in the adoption and utilization of digital learning systems like online textbooks, ThinkCentral offers middle and high schools a powerful LMS previously unavailable to secondary schools, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Jul 2008
Susan Hixson reviews DOMA, an Internet-based supplemental math assessment program for use with grades K-12.
The company's new EasyTech lessons and activities support middle school students to learn critical skills in blogs, podcasts, online communicating and more.
News/Breaking News - Posted 07 Feb 2008
enVisionMATH combines digital animations and visual learning to build an innovative program for 21st century learners.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Jan 2008
U.S. student scores were below the international average in science and math literacy, according to the 2006 findings of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).
News/Breaking News - Posted 05 Dec 2007
The data analysis and decision support tool, paired with a student information system, gives districts a powerful solution for using data to improve student achievement, the announcement states.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Nov 2007
Apex Learning creates assessments specifically aligned to each state’s test blueprint and mirrors the statewide test in terminology, testing format, item types, and weighting. Additionally, activities on the exam’s architecture and test-taking strategies are included to decrease students’ anxiety.
News/Breaking News - Posted 14 Nov 2007
The comprehensive assessment tool supports educators with research advances and enhanced design.
News/Breaking News - Posted 17 Oct 2007
WriteToLearn v.4.0 includes more than 200 passages from Scott Foresman "Reading Street" plus enhanced teacher tools.
News/Breaking News - Posted 10 Oct 2007
With the enhancements, teachers now will have the option to create custom writing topics or choose from supplied writing prompts, both of which can be analyzed and graded automatically by the program.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Oct 2007
IntelliPath's technology allows districts to create individual learning paths aligned to state standards, research-driven strategies, and existing resources, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Oct 2007
Using the cross-curricular instructional program, students in grades 4-6 learn science and build reading skills, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Oct 2007
Fox Tracker enables quick, individual, accurate administration and reporting of mathematics and literacy assessments for pre-K through grade 3.
News/Breaking News - Posted 26 Sep 2007
Version 7.2 features enhancements to score reporting and an increased emphasis on student planning and instructor training.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Sep 2007
The Lexile Framework for Writing links assessment with writing instruction.
News/Breaking News - Posted 12 Sep 2007
The new product, designed for third- through fifth-graders, is becoming available just as schools are facing new No Child Left Behind testing requirements in science.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Sep 2007
The Web-delivered supplemental curriculum is intended to help teachers develop students’ fundamental math skills while developing their problem-solving abilities.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Aug 2007
MetaMetrics collaborates with Voyager Expanded Learning to allow Texas educators to align mathematics instruction with actionable measures.
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 Jul 2007
The new edition of Kaleidoscope extends levels to include grades K-8 with enhanced language Arts components.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Jul 2007
PracticePlanet offers an online test practice system that models standardized tests, giving students practice opportunities designed to develop confidence for annual testing.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Jul 2007
Lexia Reading v5 brings three Lexia titles for grades K to 12 into one newly enhanced management system with new reporting features, and an option for delivery over the Web.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Jun 2007
As part of its comprehensive MAP Growth Measures assessment system, the new primary grades assessment offers teachers improved tools to place young students in appropriate curricula, in addition to accurately identifying student abilities.
News/Breaking News - Posted 22 Jun 2007
The Washington Post takes a look at problems with online testing in a May 28 article that examines disruptions in this year’s Virginia Standards of Learning testing.
News/Cool Links - Posted 28 May 2007
Pearson agreed to acquire Harcourt Assessment and Harcourt Education International from Reed Elsevier for $950 million in cash.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 May 2007
Used in concert with an Interwrite Board, Pad, Panel, or student response system, Workspace provides teachers the means to interact with any form of digital content, while engaging their students in novel new ways, the announcement states.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 May 2007
Susan Hixson reviews Study Island, an online program that delivers curriculum content and assessment features tied to state standards.
Qwizdom ReadySet combines a standards-based curriculum package with instant assessment features and an automatic reporting system.
Charles Doe's Look At ... this month surveys software that includes student management systems featuring record keeping, scheduling, and other similar tasks; teacher evaluations; online learning environments; communications (usually email); grades and grade books; reporting; and more.
Traditionally, we have defined literacy as the ability to read and write. However, 21st-century literacy has moved beyond that into the realm of possessing the critical-thinking skills necessary to delve into information or data and figure out what it really means. Students need the ability to synthesize and evaluate data and to create new information and knowledge after they have determined its quality. To prepare our students to be informed, successful citizens, we must teach them to see beyond numbers and simple functions. They must have the skills to evaluate and analyze the data put before them. In other words, they must also be data-literate. Dr. Glenda Gunter offers strategies for building data literacy and a great deal more in her article.
With expanded essay feedback, the online tool for building writing and reading comprehension skills now evaluates six traits of writing.
News/Breaking News - Posted 24 Apr 2007
The iSkills assessment is a simulation-based test designed to measure information and communication technology (ICT) literacy, that is, a student’s ability to navigate, critically evaluate, and communicate information using digital technology, communication tools and networks.
News/Breaking News - Posted 18 Apr 2007
The Princeton Review will offer free practice college entrance tests on April 28.
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Apr 2007
During the webinars, ETS will also introduce a new Preplanning tool that gives students a choice of eight plan types, including an outline, an idea web, and templates for specific types of essays, such as compare/contrast and cause and effect.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Mar 2007
In an article originally published in The Golden Key, the journal of the Hawaii Association of School Librarians (HASL), in fall 2006, Violet Harada, of the University of Hawaii’s Library and Information Science Program, and her colleagues write on a collaborative venture to further librarians’ roles in assessment of learning.
ADS will be part of Harcourt Connected Learning, a newly-formed division of Harcourt Education.
News/Breaking News - Posted 26 Feb 2007
The latest PRS software creates a “virtual” environment so students anywhere can participate in an interactive assessment environment, the announcement states.
News/Breaking News - Posted 26 Jan 2007
The company’s third generation assessment platform provides easier, faster, and more robust formative assessment reporting.
News/Breaking News - Posted 26 Jan 2007
With digital curriculum across math, science, English, social studies, and world languages, the new catalog includes courses needed to meet the graduation requirements of most states.
News/Breaking News - Posted 26 Jan 2007
This suite of assessment products stems from the ThinkLink Learning formative assessment services that help educators improve student learning and predict how students will score on high-stakes achievement exams.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 Jan 2007
The “Make a Plan” tool gives students a choice of eight plan types, including an outline, an idea web, and templates for specific types of essays, such as compare/contrast and cause and effect.
News/Breaking News - Posted 03 Jan 2007
Pearson Education’s formative assessment product line uses the Quantile Framework for Mathematics to link to state standards.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Dec 2006
Vantage Learning’s MY Access! Home Edition gives parents the tools they need to help their kids boost their writing skills and confidence levels, the announcement states.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Dec 2006
The rewrite provides one easy-to-use system that optimizes performance and provides better overall administration functions and data security, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 Nov 2006
Online or Web-based assessments are growing in number and variety. The amazing growth in the number and use of Web-based assessments is being spurred by their enormous advantages. Scoring and reporting is nearly instantaneous; results are available to teachers and administrators soon after test completion. Student feedback also can be nearly instantaneous and part of the learning process when the assessment is used as part of ongoing instruction. This article takes a look at a number of K–12 Web-based assessments to provide examples and to discuss as many different types of quality assessments as possible.
The Lexile Framework for Reading matches students and content to improve reading comprehension across the curriculum.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Oct 2006
Version 2 of the Web-based learning tool now contains more than 100 reading passages and more than 100 essay topics.
News/Breaking News - Posted 18 Oct 2006
The latest version of InterWrite PRS software now supports over 14 global languages; is compatible with Windows, MAC OS X, Intel MAC, and Linux; and showcases a new user interface making it easier for educators to use PRS “clickers” and software to receive student feedback and assess comprehension of a subject matter.
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Oct 2006
The latest version of the assessment system features enhanced teacher and administrator reports and advanced networking capabilities.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Oct 2006
Criterion v6.2 includes a number of upgrades to ETS’s proprietary e-rater scoring engine, including the ability to detect run-on sentences and missing commas; expanded sentence fragment detection; and analysis and feedback regarding the technical quality of a student’s thesis statement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 Oct 2006
The Virtual History - Ancient Egypt multi-level, 5 – 7 day module is intended as a capstone to a traditionally taught section on ancient Egypt.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Oct 2006
TRAILS (Tool for Real-time Assessment of Information Literacy Skills) is a federally funded project to create a tool for library media specialists and teachers to assess the information literacy skills of their high school students.
News/Free Resources - Posted 22 Sep 2006
While researching her soon-to-be-published November/December 2006 MultiMedia & Internet@Schools article “Library Automation in K-12, a 2006 Update—Part 2,” Barbara Fiehn spoke with Sagebrush Corporation executives shortly after Follett acquired Sagebrush’s library automation products. Here’s her brief report on what’s happening to the rest of Sagebrush Corporation.
New and exciting uses of digital technology in language arts are appearing all the time—a very good thing in view of the digital nature of the lives of today's K–12 students. As we all know, the amount of time that students spend with television, cell phones, iPods, gaming technologies, the Internet, computers, and other electronic technologies is stunning. Fortunately, emerging digital technologies can help language arts teachers liven up their classes, making them more digitally relevant and keeping or regaining student attention. This article takes a look at some Web-based programs and some new hardware that may provide new ideas for your language arts classroom.
“Prosper for Shining Star” combines an assessment system with a standards-based English Language Learner curriculum.
News/Breaking News - Posted 18 Aug 2006
“Using Data for School Reform” is one component of SETDA’s 2006 Leadership Summit Toolkit.
News/Free Resources - Posted 04 Aug 2006
High Point Level A, B, and C series reading program for struggling readers and English language learners in middle schools are now integrated with 59 new MY Access! writing prompts.
News/Breaking News - Posted 21 Jul 2006
Waterford 4.0 features expanded content, reporting, and functionality to improve instruction in early reading, math, and science.
News/Breaking News - Posted 07 Jul 2006
The Web-based tool is designed to build writing and reading comprehension skills through essay writing and summarization practice.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Jul 2006
The newest version of FSCreations’ ExamView integrates netTrekker resources for immediate reinforcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Jul 2006
Scholastic’s reading intervention program adds to the growing bank of thematic and leveled writing assignments available in MY Access!
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Jun 2006
Starting this August, schools and districts that purchase subscriptions through Great Source will get Write Source’s new features coupled with the Criterion service’s existing program to advance writing progress.
News/Breaking News - Posted 30 May 2006
InterWrite PRS 4.0 supports InterWrite PRS-RF, the newest addition to the company’s line of student response systems, as well as existing InterWrite PRS infrared systems.
News/Breaking News - Posted 25 May 2006
Workbooks from Prentice Hall and Web-based literacy tools from Pearson Knowledge Technologies offer middle school students tools for building reading and writing skills.
News/Breaking News - Posted 11 May 2006
MAP for Primary Grades, newly released by Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA), provides a computer-based adaptive assessment for students in grades K-2.
News/Breaking News - Posted 04 May 2006
The new program is research-based and designed to deliver engaging, targeted reading intervention for students in grades 3-6.
News/Breaking News - Posted 02 May 2006
Math, computers, and the Internet make a wonderful combination that seems to be producing better, more effective, and more interesting math educational materials every day. Internet technology—driven by speedy DSL access, increasing flexibility of use, and a large (and growing) potential audience—is providing an exciting forum for the development of some really outstanding math resources. Charlie Doe takes a look at the territory in this math roundup.
Moodle is a free, open source course management system software package that is designed to help educators create quality online content and a collaborative, interactive environment to support their classroom courses. It's been in use at the author's school, the National Cathedral School (NCS) in Washington, D.C., for 3 years and there has been tremendous growth in its use over those years. Athena Maikish describes the software and the many ways they're pressing it into service, from creating interactive physics homework quizzes to promoting a paperless classroom and applying technology to increase productivity.
The Core level of the test is designed for high school seniors and first-year students at community colleges and four-year institutions. Until May 5, first test administration is free for qualifying colleges and high schools.
News/Breaking News - Posted 14 Apr 2006
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) released its 2006 Compendium, the annual collection of monographs by leaders from the education technology community.
News/Breaking News - Posted 07 Apr 2006
The online K-12 programs feature new levels and content and provide an important part of the assessment solution component of the Sunburst Learning Solutions program for targeted intervention, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Mar 2006
The new online service is available to help districts measure K-8 students’ proficiency with information and communication technology.
News/Breaking News - Posted 22 Mar 2006
The Dynamic Reporting Suite helps educators understand individual student needs and provides a big-picture look at classroom and district data, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 10 Mar 2006
The online formative assessment is designed to measure and improve student writing progress in grades 6-12.
News/Breaking News - Posted 07 Mar 2006
The new version is designed to enhance administrative and end-user settings for the Personal, School, Family, and Enterprise editions of TurboTools.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Mar 2006
Gradebook2, an assessment package available in a single-user edition, is reviewed by John Drag, Jr.
The newest version of the educational simulation developer’s management program allows multiple teams to compete against each other.
News/Breaking News - Posted 24 Feb 2006
Educational Testing Service (ETS) is hosting free Web seminars that examine using standards-aligned assessment to drive instruction and improve student achievement.
News/Free Resources - Posted 24 Feb 2006
The new book is a comprehensive guide for measuring students’ ability to use technology effectively for learning.
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Feb 2006
Students or audience members can use the system’s credit card sized input devices for polling, testing, or anonymous response.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Feb 2006
IDMS Version 6.1 also introduces the ability to create lesson plans that teachers can align to the pacing guides and share with other educators.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Feb 2006
Sunburst’s new program focuses on student improvement in grades K-12 using technology developed for targeted intervention.
News/Breaking News - Posted 23 Jan 2006
The online curriculum system for middle and high school learners has also added multimedia-enhanced lessons in language arts, social studies, and mathematics.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Jan 2006
CompassLearning Odyssey for English Language Learners will now be available in Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Haitian Creole, Hmong; Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Vietnamese.
News/Breaking News - Posted 10 Jan 2006
Reviewer Susan Hixson examines P.E.T. Learning Styles Solution, an online program based on the work of Carl Jung that evaluates teaching and learning styles.
The Pinnacle Plus assessment system is now available to individual users, allowing classroom teachers to launch their own efforts to track standards-based skills and generate accompanying reports.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Dec 2005
Voyager’s new reading intervention program uses print, Web, and DVD technology to reach struggling middle and high school students.
News/Breaking News - Posted 22 Dec 2005
The growth measure informs instruction and prepares districts and states for upcoming NCLB accountability provisions, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 21 Dec 2005
The program’s new teaching system and management tools will have greater impact on helping older struggling readers, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 14 Dec 2005
The latest release of the software provides enhanced tools and student assessment features, plus new content. The InterWrite PRS student assessment system is now integrated into InterWrite 6.0.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Dec 2005
The link between NWEA’s assessment products and CompassLearning’s instructional resources will enhance educators’ ability to tie assessments to instructional content.
News/Breaking News - Posted 29 Nov 2005
The DIBELS assessment evaluates kindergartners and first-graders in six areas: word use fluency, initial sound fluency, letter naming fluency, phoneme segmentation fluency, oral reading fluency, and nonsense word fluency.
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Nov 2005
Lori Callister focuses on how assessment data can enable you "to make decisions that support student growth and make real and lasting improvements in [your] schools." A sidebar, "Leveraging Data for Learning: Resources and Further Examples," presents six more assessment data-use success stories.
Districts nationwide are assessing progress toward achieving technology goals through a beta program that uses Learning.com's TechLiteracy Assessment.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Oct 2005
Viewpoint expands the company’s family of information products to include new reporting capabilities and the ability to create student plans (IEPs, 504 plans, health and academic improvement plans).
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 Oct 2005
PLATO Earth and Space Science includes multimedia lessons and activities that use animation, experiments, investigations, video, and audio to bring science concepts to life, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 17 Oct 2005
The Web-enabled resource delivers timely content to K-12 classroom, is aligned to state standards, correlated to adopted textbooks, and extends the life of those textbooks, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 07 Oct 2005
Key Skills for Reading: Vocabulary Development software offers activities that isolate and reinforce skills needed to meet vocabulary growth requirements in grades 1 to 3, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 30 Sep 2005
ETS has repositioned all of its flagship K-12 products and services under the System 5 brand.
News/Breaking News - Posted 22 Sep 2005
ETS expanded its online Formative Assessment Item Bank with more than 11,000 mathematics and language arts test questions aligned to Massachusett’s Learning Standards in the K-12 Curriculum Frameworks.
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Aug 2005
Curriculum Advantage, Inc. released Classworks State Editions for South Carolina and Alabama.
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Aug 2005
Pearson Educational Measurement (PEM) will implement a pilot program of online testing for 6th grade English Language Arts and Social Studies tests administered as part of the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP).
News/Breaking News - Posted 08 Aug 2005
Scantron released a Classroom Testing module and new item-sharing capabilities for Achievement Series.
News/Breaking News - Posted 19 Jul 2005
Assessment and instructional content in Version 4.0 are now comprehensively aligned with every state’s content standards.
News/Breaking News - Posted 06 Jul 2005
A review of Predictive Assessment Series, an assessment tool for K-12.
Math teachers and their students have a huge number of instructional, testing, tutorial, and other materials available in a bewildering array of formats. Programs and services are offered as software for personal computers or hand-held devices, on stand-alone handhelds and calculators, and as Web-based subscription services. This article takes a look at some of the instructional, testing, and tutorial software or Web-based programs and services for math teaching.
Learning.com’s new offering will allow districts to assess progress toward achieving national and state technology goals and mandates, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 29 Jun 2005
The upgraded software expands educators’ options for developing and delivering questions and lessons using the classroom response system InterWrite PRS, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Jun 2005
Key Skills: Phonics Mastery software is designed to reinforce phonics skills for students in grades K to 3 through more than 80 educational activities.
News/Breaking News - Posted 28 Jun 2005
The SmartTRAX program (Teaching, Reviewing and Assessing Across the Curriculum) is designed as a tool to introduce, instruct, and assess standards-based curriculum and to analyze student progress on an individual or whole-class basis, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 Jun 2005
Vantage Learning’s Web-based system gives customers greater freedom to administer its essay scoring technology to meet their individual needs, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 13 Jun 2005
Version 5.7 includes a universal import utility for processing test data and an improved benchmarking test with 6,000 test items.
News/Breaking News - Posted 01 Jun 2005
Entitled “Test Preparation Strategies,” the three-lesson course discloses findings on factors that affect test performance and shows teachers ways to create a positive, anxiety-free attitude toward test taking, according to the announcement.
News/Free Resources - Posted 31 May 2005
Announced at the 2005 International Reading Association Convention in San Antonio, the Riverdeep products are Destination Reading Course III for grades 4-6, Course IV for grades 6-8, and Course V, a high-school-appropriate Proficiency Course for students who have not mastered the foundational reading skills.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 May 2005
Yearly ProgressPro Reading/Language Arts fulfills educators’ need for effective ongoing progress monitoring and data-driven instruction to support student achievement, according to McGraw-Hill’s announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 09 May 2005
Using mCLASS reading assessment software and the Gear Up! reading series, teachers can assess students’ reading ability using a handheld computer, according to the announcement.
News/Breaking News - Posted 02 May 2005
MetaMetrics, Inc.’s three-day conference, to be held August 8-10 in Research Triangle Park, NC, will focus on linking reading assessment and instruction across the curriculum and grade levels.
News/Breaking News - Posted 02 May 2005
Expanding educational (and other) assessments and the explosive growth of computer and Internet technologies have produced an ever-increasing number of online assessment tools for nearly any imaginable purpose. Formal assessments, including standardized tests, and more informal assessments, such as those used by classroom teachers, are included in this boom. The assessments discussed here include everything from programs that administrators might look at for standardized testing for an entire district to programs that individual teachers might purchase for their own use or for use within a department.
Math + Music is a nonlanguage-based program that combines computer activity-based instruction with specialized piano training designed to help teach K-5 math standards, enhance problem-solving skills, and raise math scores on standardized tests.
Advances in technology—including artificial intelligence (AI), as well as computer- and Web-based technologies—have led to the development of exciting instructional and testing applications for teaching writing. Some of the more radical changes are stemming from the development and relatively widespread use of computerized essay correction technology. In this article, learn about an array of essay-scoring products from some of the top testing companies, including Educational Testing Services (e-rater), Pearson Knowledge Technologies (Intelligent Essay Assessor), and Vantage Learning (IntelliMetric).
New writing prompts aligned by level and thematic unit to the scope and sequence of SRA/Open Court Reading--a core reading program adopted by school districts for both instructional and intervention reading strategies--extend the MY Access! program.
News/Breaking News - Posted 01 May 2005
On NPR’s Morning Edition is a story on students’ ability, or lack of ability, in the areas of information and computer literacy, sparked by the fact that ETS is piloting an assessment test for those skills.
News/Cool Links - Posted 26 Apr 2005
The report indicates that student achievement has improved, but that the growth rate for that improvement has declined.
News/Breaking News - Posted 18 Apr 2005
News/Breaking News - Posted 29 Mar 2005
News/Breaking News - Posted 16 Mar 2005
News/Breaking News - Posted 15 Mar 2005
News/Breaking News - Posted 14 Mar 2005
News/Breaking News - Posted 07 Mar 2005
Kid's College is an online program designed to motivate students to practice skills and reinforce classroom activities. The program uses a sports theme to capture the students' attention and to encourage them to continue to answer questions and gain points.
EasyTech, available in English and Spanish, provides a series of instructional lessons that integrate technology into the core curriculum. Working at their own pace, students complete activities while learning how to use a variety of technology tools for their curriculum-related products.
Can learning be achieved effectively by the standard measures, via e-learning, or through some blend of technological and classroom strategies? When added to the issues of the digital divide, you have a problem of gargantuan proportions. With effort, thought, and money, however, it is possible.
News/Breaking News - Posted 27 Jan 2005
The NCLB Act mandates technology literacy by the time students reach the eighth grade. To prepare for meeting this mandate, our district worked to equip the school community with all the tools it would need to help the students achieve computer proficiency by the end of their eighth grade year. But initially, we found that not enough of the district's eighth graders had met the standards we set. We soon realized that despite adequate facilities, equipment, and funding, we would not succeed in achieving computer proficiency without a technology literacy teaching tool. The missing piece was curriculum—a program to teach kids technology skills in a real-world context.
The IntelliTools Classroom Suite includes three integrated software programs--IntelliPics Studio 3, IntelliMathics 3, and IntelliTalk 3.
The software, designed for grades pre-K8, provides a network-ready cross-curricular platform for classroom activities, creativity tools, and student performance tracking and assessment.
A complete assessment package designed to help educators diagnose academic strengths and weaknesses.
Technological advances have provided new opportunities and greater power to support the teachers' endeavors and have simplified the process of collecting and using data to help them make informed decisions about their increasingly thinning resources, to better collaborate on what works, and, ultimately, to help all children learn.
In this article, several math and assessment packages are examined in an effort both to describe them--and the benefits that technology-based products can bring to math teaching and assessment--and to address the issue of how to look at and select such products.
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