Galileo Technology Providing Cutting-Edge Solutions for Curriculum, Assessment, and Instructional Effectiveness Initiatives

Galileo K-12 Online Instructional Improvement and Effectiveness System from Assessment Technology Incorporated is comprehensive, standards-based, and research supported. The system provides an array of curriculum, assessment, instructional effectiveness, and reporting tools aligned to Common Core and local state standards and facilitates advancements in teaching strategies, assessments, and implementation of instructional effectiveness initiatives.

Galileo’s tools help users to:

• Administer a full range of assessments including benchmark, formative, screening and placement tests, plus interim and final course examinations, pretests and posttests, technology enhanced early literacy and early math assessment series, computerized adaptive tests, and instructional effectiveness assessments.
• Evaluate instruction based on reliable and valid assessment information including continuously updated forecasts of student achievement on statewide tests.
• Use Item Response Theory generated assessment information to guide classroom instruction, enrichment, and reteaching interventions.
• Receive immediate assessment feedback providing the ability to track student progress towards standards mastery and inform instructional decisions using Galileo’s Dashboards.
• Elevate student achievement by using Galileo benchmark assessment data to inform instruction. A study, called for by the Massachusetts Department of Education and completed by MAGI Services, evaluated the use of Galileo K-12 Online and revealed that when teachers used Galileo benchmark data to guide instruction, achievement was enhanced.

Experience Galileo for yourself. There are a number of ways to learn first-hand about Galileo K-12 Online. You can:

• Visit the Assessment Technology Incorporated website.
• Participate in an online demonstration.
• Check out the variety of resources available including videos, webisodes, webinars or Dialogs.
• Contact an ATI Field Services Coordinator.

ATI Supports Districts and Charters in the Transition to New Statewide Assessments

ATI is taking several measures to assist districts and charters across the nation as they transition to new forms of statewide testing reflecting new rigorous educational standards. For example, some states have contracted with American Institutes of Research (AIR) for statewide testing. Arizona is one such state. This spring, administration of Arizona's Measurement of Educational Readiness to Inform Teaching (AzMERIT) as the new statewide assessment to measure student ability in English language arts and math took place. ATI is supporting districts and charters in Arizona and other states prepare students for new statewide assessments in a number of ways including:

• Creation of assessment items aligned to Common Core and local state standards and, in many instances, reflective of the technology enhanced (TE) items planned for the online testing environments by AIR and others.
• Development of the Galileo Digital Curriculum Platform that will support districts/charters as they move toward the integration of instruction and assessment called for in current best practices approaches to education. Instructional Dialogs in the Digital Curriculum Platform provide a place for students to respond to new TE item types and to develop expanded test taking skills.
• Creation of district-wide assessments aligned to published test blueprints (e.g., PARCC, SBAC, and AzMERIT) and to district pacing guides.

Read more about how ATI can help in preparing students for new statewide assessments or contact us to learn more.

Next Generation Assessments: Student tools to support online testing are a focus of ongoing development for ATI

This year many school districts began using statewide assessments that were delivered entirely online. These next generation assessments require students to not only answer multiple-choice questions, but also to use digital tools to solve problems. Rather than answer a multiple choice question about a theme a student might be asked to actually highlight a passage in a text that describes that theme. They might be asked to sort words by the part of speech they represent or use a scientific calculator to compute the answer to a complicated math problem. These tools are intended to provide a richer and more authentic evaluation of the skill of interest.

ATI continues to develop features that support next generation online testing with Galileo technology enhanced (TE) items. A scientific calculator is under development and is scheduled for release in the next few weeks. Additional calculators are being developed and are planned for use at different grade levels. Other tools supporting online testing currently under development include strike-through, highlighting, the ability to take notes, and text to speech. These tools are scheduled to be available for use in the 2015-16 school year.


The scientific calculator may be made available selectively for use in desired assessments. Students will easily access the calculator from an icon in the top right of the assessment item.  

For more information about how ATI is supporting districts/charters implementing assessment including TE items, schedule a Galileo overview.