Year-End Review and Preparing for the New School Year

It is hard to believe that the end of the school year has arrived. Now that your district is wrapping up the 2015-16 school year, it is the perfect time to reflect on a year of Galileo implementation. It is also time to begin planning for next year.  

ATI recommends that you gather appropriate personnel and staff for a “year-end review.”  In a Year –End Review meeting you may revisit the Galileo goals you establish at the start of the year. Common goals among district implementing Galileo often include:

• administer district-wide assessments in grade K-8 for math, ELA, and science;
• increase teachers use of district-wide testing data for classroom interventions; and 
• incorporate Galileo student performance data into instructional effectiveness plans

Once participants have reviewed the year’s Galileo goals, they may then review the feedback from this year’s implementation, identifying both the challenges and success stories. Utilize this valuable feedback to begin formulating goals for the 2016-17 school year and determine in what ways your implementation plan may be added to and/or modified.

Once the review of the year has occurred, moving onto planning for 2016-17 might include:

• determine the assessment types, frequency, subjects, and for administration;
• determine how you will administer assessments;
• identify new Galileo features you will explore and implement (e.g., Galileo Digital Curriculum Platform) and create a professional development plan to assist in the roll out of these features on your campuses;
• identify staff changes that your team and ATI should be made aware of;
• determine who will be the Galileo Test Coordinator(s); and
• identify new district initiatives that ATI should be notified of such as the implementation of a new Student Information System or textbook adoption.

As you complete your year-end review and your 2016-17 planning meetings, remember you may always contact ATI if you have questions, or would like some advice and guidance.  You may contact us at 1-800-367-4762 or GalileoInfo@ati-online.com.

Galileo Pre-K Online: Linking Planning, Individualization, and Program Enhancements

ATI spent last week in Nashville at one of the largest conferences designed specifically for early childhood educators, the NHSA Annual Conference. We were thrilled to connect with so many preschool educators, researchers, and teachers at the conference. In case we missed speaking with you at the conference, we wanted to share what so many people were excited to hear about. 

Galileo Pre-K Online, is a research-based assessment, curriculum, and reporting system reflecting early childhood state standards, school readiness goals, and the Head Start Child Development and Learning Framework. It’s a complete system linking planning, individualization, and program enhancements. Here’s a snap shot of some of the features and services offered through Galileo Pre-K Online:

Galileo G3 Alignment with Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework 
The Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages Birth to Five outlines and describes the skills and behaviors that programs should foster in all children, including infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. ATI has completed an analysis of the most recent framework and developed a document illustrating the alignment of the Galileo G3 scales with the framework. The Galileo G3 scales are included in Galileo Pre-K Online. We appreciate the opportunity to continue supporting Head Start partner programs offering stimulating learning experiences for young children and preparing them to be ready for school. 

Outcomes Analysis Report 
The Outcomes Analysis Report was designed specifically to address the needs of Head Start programs. This report allows programs to analyze progressive data for one or several of the Galileo G3 assessment scales over multiple time periods in one report. The report may include aggregated and disaggregated data for an entire program, center, class or at the individual child level. 

Galileo School Readiness Scales 
Share child development goals and progress with families of program participants more easily with updated Galileo School Readiness Scales available in both English and Spanish. Galileo School Readiness Scales are reporting tools that provide reliable assessment of children’s development to inform educational decision-making. 

Learning on Demand Professional Development Sessions 
All Galileo users can take part in free, online Learning on Demand professional development sessions. New sessions are regularly added and cover a wide range of subjects. Recent topics include “Are Your Children Ready for School?” and “Galileo Parental Toolkit for Spanish-Speaking Parents.” Whether you are new to Galileo or you have been using Galileo for years, you are sure to benefit from these short, online training sessions. Plus, if you can’t attend the live session, Learning on Demand sessions are recorded and can be accessed easily from the Galileo Help files.

If you didn’t make it to the Conference, give us a call and we can chat about how Galileo Pre-K Online might be just the right fit for your preschool. Call one of our friendly Field Services Coordinators at 1.877.358.7611 or email us at GalileoInfo@ati-online.com. Let’s chat today.

Switch to the Enhanced K-12 Student-Parent Center Today!

Join the Galileo users who have already made the switch to our enhanced K-12 Student-Parent Center and begin to enjoy the benefits it provides. Discover the sleek new interface designed to easily communicate information between students and teachers and between teachers and parents. Communications to students and parents can focus on curriculum and instruction including scheduled lessons and assignments, on assessments and assessment results and on instructional resources for home use. Experience for yourself the enhanced Dashboard, user-friendly icons, responsive design accommodating use on various screen sizes, search capabilities, and the integration of Google Translate. Galileo will transition completely to the new K-12 Student-Parent Center this summer but you can make the switch today.

Learn how to switch to the enhanced K-12 Student-Parent Center.
Learn how to preview the enhanced Center.
Read more about the enhanced Center.

The K-12 Student Parent Center provides a detailed assessment history on all completed benchmark, formative, and external assessments and also contains all available lessons and assignments so that they can be easily accessed by students and their parents.

Galileo Pre-K Online: Supporting Educators Meeting Florida VPK Assessment and Reporting Requirements

Preschool educators in Florida are once again empowered to choose the assessment system that best fits their Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) assessment needs. Galileo Pre-K Online from Assessment Technology Incorporated offers a powerful VPK reporting tool. The flexible, data-based assessment system reflects Florida's early childhood standards, school readiness goals, and the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework. Galileo links planning, individualization, and program enhancements to support programs as they prepare children for transition to kindergarten.  

Enjoy the many benefits that implementing Galileo Pre-K Online offers: 

• Reporting ease: Track and communicate progress on Florida VPK assessment measures.
• Ongoing multi-method assessment: Access information on learning anytime, anywhere and record observations as often as desired throughout the year. 
• Flexibility in collecting and sharing child observation notes: Include videos and images in child and class notes and share notes with families by printing them out or by providing them through the online Galileo Parent Center.
• Customizable assessment scales: Galileo offers scales in both English and Spanish for children birth through 5 years with tools to translate them into other languages. Add or delete scale capabilities or create new scales for special or local needs. 
• Research-based Developmental Level (DL) scores: Based in Item Response Theory (IRT), readiness levels and DL scores are used to measure child progress and to plan developmentally appropriate lessons for individuals or groups of children.
• Comprehensive training and support options: Take advantage of complimentary support options delivered by phone or via web-based tutorials or purchase customized on-site training provided by our skilled Professional Development Team. Plus, ongoing access within the application to the Professional Development Forum, Galileo Help interface, and other training and support documents facilitate continuous training.

 Contact the ATI Field Services Team at GalileoInfo@ati-online.com or call 1.877.358-7611 for a personal overview of Galileo Pre-K Online. We welcome the opportunity to demonstrate how the system works and how it can help programs achieve goals designed to ensure children's developmental and educational success. 

For those attending the NHSA Conference in Nashville next week, be sure to stop by ATI exhibit #415 for a live look at Galileo Pre-K Online.