Complimentary webinar: Galileo Pre-K Online Innovations Supporting School Readiness in Head Start

Head Start defines school readiness as children possessing the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary for success in school and for later learning and life. The Head Start approach to school readiness is designed to ensure that children are ready for school, families are ready to support their children's learning, and schools are ready for children. This complimentary webinar, hosted by Assessment Technology Incorporated, will illustrate new, innovative and research-based tools in Galileo Pre-K Online. These advances are designed to support the efforts of Head Start educators to meet Head Start Program Performance Standards and the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework requirements for establishing school readiness goals and implementing plans to support the success of programs, children and families in achieving those goals.

Date: June 11, 2013
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. MST / Noon - 1:00 p.m. EDT
Presenters:
Jason K. Feld, ATI Vice President Corporate Projects
Michelle C. Larson, ATI Preschool Special Projects Coordinator

Learn more and register.
For more information, click to view Galileo Pre-K Online website.

Community Assessment and Item Banking Initiative Professional Development Offerings

The Community Assessment and Item Banking (CAIB) Initiative provides a way for users to develop and to share both assessment items and assessments for use in evaluating student capabilities in areas not tested on statewide assessments. As part of the initiative, ATI is offering professional development to prepare educators for developing high-quality items and is providing services related to assessment development and data analysis. Participating districts are provided access to a continually growing repository of shared, district-written, high-quality items and customized assessments in areas not currently addressed on statewide tests.

CAIB Professional Development Modules:
Professional development supporting the CAIB initiative consists of a series of three modules that guide districts through the process of developing high-quality assessment items and assessments. The first module introduces participants to the Galileo item writing and review tools and guides districts through the process of writing items for their own use. The second module takes participants through a guided review of the items they have written. Participants in this training refine their review skills and help contribute vetted items to the shared Community Item Bank. Module Three is offered online and on an ongoing basis to district staff members who have completed the first two modules and as the district wishes to refine and expand on the items available for district and community use.

To schedule a professional development session:
On-site (Modules One and Two) and webinar instruction (Module Three) is arranged through the ATI Professional Development Department. Up to 40 participants may take part in on-site sessions held at a district-provided computer lab. Sessions are booked on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact a Professional Development staff member at 1.877.442.5453 or at ProfessionalDevelopment@ati-online.com for additional information, pricing, and to reserve a date.

For more information:
View Professional Development Community Assessment and Item Baking Initiative

Mathematics Content for Common Core State Standards

Traditional expectations for students studying geometry frequently take forms such as:  "What is the perimeter?"; "Which angles are congruent?"; "Find the volume." While proficiency with procedural skills retains its importance in the Common Core standards for mathematics, understanding of procedures involved in calculations has acquired increased importance. In the introduction to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics we read:

Mathematical understanding and procedural skill are equally important, and both are assessable using mathematical tasks of sufficient richness.

One hallmark of mathematical understanding is the ability to justify, in a way appropriate to the student’s mathematical maturity, why a particular mathematical statement is true or where a mathematical rule comes from.

Although the new emphasis on understanding is evident throughout the Common Core standards, in some cases it is particularly prominent. We find good examples in two related high school geometry standards G-GMD.1 and G-GMD.2. These standards direct students to an understanding of the volume formulas that they have learned to recite, write, and apply. Mastery of these standards requires students to be familiar with Cavalieri's principle.

Mathematicians have used Cavalieri’s principle (not necessarily under this name) for thousands of years. It finds its way to school as an essential element of high school geometry only now. ATI believes that Instructional Dialogs can aid both students and teachers (and even parents) in working with Cavalieri’s Principle. To this end, we have developed two dialogs devoted to this fundamental concept.  One is a teacher version, which contains supplemental notes and insights to prepare teachers for content delivery. The other is a teacher-student version, containing the same instructional content but designed for use with groups of (or individual) students. These dialogs were carefully crafted to build upon geometric concepts students are already expected to understand, and the questions posed are articulated to assess understanding of Cavalieri’s principle as well as the ability to apply it.

These published dialogs are introductory in nature. In the near future, ATI plans to publish related dialogs to address the role of Cavalieri’s principle in explaining or proving volume formulas.

We are pleased to present these tools, and trust they will prove useful in teaching a potentially-challenging topic.