Monday, December 18, 2017

Organize Your Workflow with Galileo Launchpad Technology




Checkout the latest ATI video on the Galileo K-12 Online Launchpad 

Would you benefit from assistance in handling the daily stream of student data and reporting? Your answer is probably yes. Well, imagine you had a digital assistant to help drive you through the world of education. An assistant with a simple interface. An assistant that neatly packages information, streamlines data, and provides quick access to your most coveted tools and reports. Sound promising? We think so.

The Galileo Launchpad is an easy-to-use interface that acts as a digital assistant for students, parents, and educators. It’s intuitive, colorful navigational tiles provide direct access to popular Galileo tools and reports, and it’s customizable to fit your personal needs and preferences.     

The Design
The interface page layout is both an art and a science. Knowing this, we’ve chosen a design that’s both visually attractive and undeniably simple. Don’t mistake its simplicity for lack-of-power. Underneath the Galileo Launchpad’s sleek interface lies powerful tools and reports that allow you to do everything from monitoring and scoring student tests to running Student Growth and Achievement Reports. Through the Galileo Launchpad, educators can build and schedule tests, set up intervention groups, plan lessons, access their Dashboard page, plus much more.  


Customizable navigation tiles in Launchpad – see it demonstrated

How it Works
Getting started is easy. When a user signs into Galileo, they’ll be taken directly to their own Launchpad where they’ll find several default navigational tiles. The default set of tiles includes the most commonly used Galileo interfaces based on the user’s role as a teacher or administrator. Users can personalize their Launchpad by adding tiles for other Galileo interfaces, creating their own tiles with links to external websites, or deleting tiles. At the stroke of a finger, users can also change the color, icon, and order of the navigational tiles.


Access tools and reports such as Test Monitoring from Launchpad – watch the video

Why the Need
Educators are busy professionals with endless to-do lists. More importantly, they must abide by local and state-level requirements to ensure our future generations receive the best education possible. This means being able to capture the right data at the right time and using it to make decisions that improve student performance. Galileo Launchpad is the digital assistant that brings these capabilities to your fingertips. Check out the our website to learn more about Launchpad and Galileo K-12 Online. 

Topics of Interest
Streamline Work with Galileo K-12 Launchpad 
New Powerful Launchpad for K-12 Student-Parent Center
Learn more about Galileo Efficient Launchpads, Graphical Dashboards with Multi-Level Reporting


Monday, December 4, 2017

How to integrate content expertise with innovative technology to promote data-driven learning

The Arizona Educational Research Organization (AERO) 2017 Annual Meeting The Promise and Future of Public Education in Arizona: Interrogating the Opportunities and Risks Ahead is slated for Dec. 9, 2017 in Phoenix, Arizona. ATI, as a company founded and headquartered in Arizona, is proud to participate and sponsor the event that unites Arizona educational researchers, assessment and curriculum leads, and directors of technology who are passionate about improving student learning. Additionally, ATI continues to support hundreds of districts across 32 states serving hundreds of thousands of students every day.

Sarah Estrada, ATI Senior Research Scientist, and Susan Jacobs, WestEd Curriculum and Assessment Architect and Professional Development Facilitator, have been invited to share their insights on how researchers, policy makers, and educators can gather, understand, and use formative data to maximize teaching and learning. Sarah and Susan’s interactive presentation will engage educational leaders in examining how districts and schools can integrate content expertise with innovative technology to help ensure that instruction responds to the implications of student performance data in targeted and meaningful ways. During the presentation, the group will explore a sample dataset as Sarah and Susan share guidance related to understanding complex measures of student performance, avoiding common pitfalls in interpretation, and using data to inform effective strategies that improve student learning.


Educational leaders can choose from hundreds of technologies and implementation supports to improve student achievement and often have multiple complex initiatives underway concurrently. The right approach and expertise can make these initiatives and supports more cohesive and manageable for educators. Streamlining supports improves morale and buy in, makes data transparent and actionable, and results in visible impacts on student achievement. ATI and WestEd can help districts and schools meet educators where they are and build capacity over time. 


To find out more about the partnership solutions, contact us. Learn more about the AERO Annual Meeting. 

Monday, November 20, 2017

Are You Currently Measuring Both Student Growth and Achievement (SGA)?

How ATI Measures and Reports SGA 


Understanding Student Growth and Achievement
Understanding the terms “growth” and “achievement” are crucial in education. Although both of these measures are critical, they provide different insight on student learning. Achievement measures a student’s performance at a single point in time against a standard. Growth, however, measures a student’s progress between two points over time.

Simply put, having one without the other is like having a photo without having the fuller story captured by the entire photo-album. One provides a single snapshot and the other provides the more complete story. If you want the complete story of student performance, one must accurately consider both growth and achievement together.     

We All Love Analogies
Here’s a sports analogy: a track-star ran a 1-mile race in 5-minutes flat, and resultantly qualified for a national tournament. Although we’re happy for his achievement, we really want to know how our track-star improves over the entire season. After six months, is our athlete growing faster or is he still hovering at 5-minutes? This information helps us predict if our athlete is on track to qualify for the Olympics! More importantly, if he’s not on track, we can use this data to implement a performance improvement plan before it’s too late.

How to Easily Measure Student Growth and Achievement  
In education, measuring both growth and achievement gives us the complete story of student learning, and this becomes valuable in developing intervention plans to ensure a student’s future academic success. 

ATI’s Galileo K-12 Online Student Growth and Achievement Report offers easy to use growth and achievement reporting. This report provides a student’s developmental level at time one and time two. It then cross-classifies student growth and achievement into performance categories. When tests and students are selected in the report, a student’s data is displayed into one of four quadrants: 1) lower growth/higher achievement; 2) higher growth/higher achievement; 3) lower growth/lower achievement; and 4) lower growth/lower achievement.

Additionally, the report is available to class-, school-, and district-level users. That is, it can be configured for a single class or entire school or an entire district (i.e., from small picture to big picture). It also lets teachers with multiple classes of the same subject categorize all their students into the same growth categorization, which streamlines the reporting process. Lastly, SGA reporting lets educators run a report on any two benchmark-assessments (i.e., a pre-test and post-test) and compares the actual growth against predicted growth expectations…we like to know where we stack-up.


Why is this Important?
In short, when growth and achievement data are properly used together, in easy-to-use reports, it can produce significant clarity on how to track and improve student learning.

More Info
Learn more about the SGA Report and other dynamic reports in Galileo by contacting one of our knowledgeable field services coordinators for a demonstration. The Galileo K-12 Online Student Growth and Achievement Report is easily accessible from the Staff Launchpad or Administrator Dashboard.  

Other Topics of Interest
Comparing Results from Benchmarks When the Questions and Standards Are Different
Galileo Dashboard Reports Facilitate Differentiated Instruction

Monday, November 13, 2017

What You Need to Know About the New Reporting Functions on the Teacher Dashboard

ATI recently released a new widget on the Galileo K-12 Teacher Dashboard.  This new widget displays Benchmark Performance levels on pre, post and benchmark assessments.  The Benchmark Performance Levels reporting widget displays the percentage of students in each performance level. This performance level is based on where a student’s Development Level (DL) score falls relative to the cut scores and the respective levels, on each benchmark assessment taken. The cut scores on the benchmark assessments are set to correspond to the cut scores and performance bands on the state standardized test. When a user drills down via the View Detailed Benchmark Performance Levels link, he or she will see student and aggregate data including performance levels, student scores, and standards mastery.  New functionality has been added which includes a search and sorting capability.


Additional Resources
Learn more about the Performance Widget with the Quick Reference Guide: http://bit.ly/2zyzebV
Explore the Benchmark Performance Levels in Galileo with this brief webinar: http://bit.ly/2jmOy4U

Written by Kerridan Kawecki , Professional Development Director

Monday, November 6, 2017

How to Implement the Galileo Digital Curriculum Platform for Free

It’s not every day you get something for free with no strings attached. But it’s true in this case. The Galileo K-12 Online system now comes with an innovative, flexible Digital Curriculum Platform at no additional charge. Our team of engineers have created a dynamic solution for seamlessly integrating standards-based differentiated instruction, comprehensive, reliable, and valid assessment, and they’ve created an easy way to access actionable reporting from the Galileo Dashboards

Creating a curriculum platform that would support educators was really important to us. We spoke to several educators and teachers and discovered what would be helpful in an online curriculum platform. The system has user-friendly tools making getting started easy and intuitive. The Platform supports the ability to incorporate existing curriculum and lessons, develop new curriculum and lesson plan content, and share and modify curriculum and lessons online. With the Galileo Platform it’s now possible to build the curriculum to suit your district or charter needs. Curriculum builder tools support the inclusion of multimedia instructional content within courses, units, lessons, and activities. And it doesn’t stop there.

Innovative Galileo Builder Tools for the Digital Age

Data from integrated assessment of student learning is available to inform decisions regarding the next instructional offerings and possible modifications of the curriculum itself. The Platform also enables searching for and scheduling popular instructional resources including those from KHAN ACADEMY®*, LearnZillion and ATI prebuilt Instructional Dialogs

Learn more about the various Galileo Digital Curriculum Platform benefits. 

Link to other resources:
Seminar: Digital Curriculum Toolkit and Collections: Standards-Aligned for Arizona Teachers Learn more   Register
Galileo’s Digital Curriculum Platform Integrates Assessment, Reporting, and Instruction Learn more
Discover the First of its Kind: The Galileo K-12 Online Digital Curriculum Platform Learn more

*KHAN ACADEMY® materials are also available for free at www.khanacademy.org.

Monday, October 30, 2017

Comparing Results from Benchmarks When the Questions and Standards Are Different

The administration of benchmark assessments is a common practice with which most educators are familiar. Benchmarks assessments, sometimes referred to as interim assessments, are intended to measure a student’s mastery of skills in a content area against grade-level standards and learning goals. But what happens when the assessments vary? What do you do when the questions and standards are not the same across benchmark assessments? How do you evaluate student progress when the benchmark assessments are not identical to one another?

The team of researchers at ATI make it possible to answer these questions by implementing state-of-the-art measurement techniques. The process begins by using Item Response Theory (IRT) scaling techniques to place student scores on a series of Galileo assessments on a common scale. The relationship between student ability and item difficulty plays a particularly important role in the IRT scaling process. In IRT, student ability estimates and item difficulty estimates inform one another within the context of the same mathematical model. Student ability is estimated in light of the relative difficulty of the items on the test, and the difficulty of the items is estimated in light of the ability level of the students who responded to them. For example, in a common IRT model, a student of average ability will have a fifty-fifty chance of responding correctly to an item of average difficulty. A student who is one standard deviation above the mean ability level will have a fifty-fifty chance of responding correctly to an item that is one standard deviation above the mean in terms of difficulty. Likewise, a student of below average ability will have a fifty-fifty chance of responding correctly to a corresponding item that is below average in difficulty. 

The fact that ability and difficulty are measured on the same scale makes it possible to adjust the student’s scale score, which is an estimate of ability, based on the difficulty of the items included in the assessment. This adjustment is a key factor in the scaling process making it possible to compare scores from different tests. When scores such as percent correct are used, such adjustment is not possible, and scores from different tests cannot be compared. For example, if a student received a score of 70 percent correct on one test and 90 percent correct on a second test, the difference could have occurred because the second test was easier than the first, or because of an increase in student performance, or both.  

In this regard, a powerful report to check out in the Galileo Help files is the Item Parameters Report. The report specifically provides information about item difficulty and other item parameters for each item on a benchmark test. Other helpful reports to check out are the Aggregate Multi-Test and Student Growth and Achievement reports, which present student IRT scale scores, which are called Developmental Level, or DL scores in Galileo, on a series of tests so that student progress may be monitored.

Watch the brief video on Psychometrics 

To learn more about ATI’s research initiatives, visit our website. For a one-on-one demonstration of the reporting features mentioned in this blog, request a personal demo with one of our knowledgeable field services coordinators. 

Other topics of interest:
How to use item parameters to make decisions during test review
How does ATI calculate my district’s psychometrics benchmark test data?

Monday, October 23, 2017

Why A Wide Range of Assessment Options is Crucial for Measuring Student Progress

Academic progress is an important goal in the educational process. The value of finding the right tools to measure academic progress is paramount when planning for next instructional steps and in evaluating the educational process. What are your assessments telling you? Are they giving you the information you need to make decisions? 

All assessments provide direction. However, it is the combination of standards-based assessments crucial to defining a comprehensive assessment system that provides the data needed for student progress, instructional improvement, and goal attainment. Each type of assessment serves a different central purpose. ATI’s Galileo comprehensive assessment system includes a wide range of assessment options including benchmark, formative, screening and placement tests, plus interim and final course examinations, pretests and posttests, and instruments documenting instructional effectiveness. The results from the variety of assessments can be placed on a common scale. The use of a common scale makes it possible to directly compare results from different assessments. The availability of information from multiple measurement sources provides the most complete picture of academic accomplishments which in turn is crucial in sound next-step decision making. 

Each type of assessment serves a different purpose, for instance:

  • benchmark and formative assessments are designed to inform instruction
  • pretests and posttests are useful for measuring academic progress 
  • analyses of instructional effectiveness assessments can identify classes and schools that are highly successful as well as those needing additional assistance 
  • screening instruments are useful in identifying students at risk for learning problems 
  • placement tests inform grade level placements, and advanced course placements 
  • computerized adaptive tests provide efficient measures of academic proficiency
  • automated construction of computerized adaptive tests increases testing options and enhances the capability to meet unique local needs 
  • observational and rating-scale assessments provide authentic measures of competencies in the environment in which those competencies are used and they provide immediate information that can be used to guide instruction

The Galileo Comprehensive Assessment System

Just as there are multiple types of assessments that can be administered, there are often a variety of testing environments. In order to provide a consistent testing experience and ensure that students are not searching the internet, accessing other applications, or do anything else that might undermine the integrity of your assessment, ATI is introducing the Galileo Student Secure Browser.  The secure browser “locks” students into the browser until the assessment is completed. There are several ways to set up and manage the Galileo Student Secure Browser application, we recommend reviewing the guide “Set-up Assistance for the Galileo Student Secure Browser” to select which is best for your district or school. 

Learn first-hand about the Galileo complete comprehensive assessment system: 

  • watch a brief video: Seeing the Big Picture with Galileo's Comprehensive Assessment System
  • schedule a personal demo
  • visit the ATI website 


Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Civics Test Update

A number of updates have been made to the Civics Test since Fall 2016.
  1. Election results have been incorporated into the questions about state and national offices.
  2. Missouri-specific content has been added to accommodate the Missouri Civics Test
  3. Text-to-Speech functionality has been incorporated for those students who receive assessment accommodations.
Students have to pass 60% of the questions on the Civics test, which is based on the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization test. They can take it first in 8th grade and can retake it until they pass. There’s no limit to the number of times the test is administered.

Many of you are aware that ATI has been offering the Civics test for a while. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization test is an oral test but this format was not practical in the school environment so multiple-choice items have been constructed to make testing efficient.

Civic Test Options
ATI offers two versions of the test: 1) only multiple-choice questions (102-110 items); 2) multiple-choice and educator-scored questions (100 items). The difference in length is due to the questions about the current U.S. Representatives. Questions 100-102/110 on the multiple-choice assessment ask about the representative of each of the congressional districts in a state, while there is just one, educator-scored question on the other version of the test. (i.e. "Who is your Congressperson?")

Requesting the Civics Test
It is helpful to specify which version of the Civics test you’d like when requesting the test. Multiple copies of this test can be provided. Please inform us of the number of congressional districts represented in your district when making the version request. Because the test is subject to frequent changes related primarily to changes in office holders, it is not always prudent to make requests too far in advance. ATI can offer the test for review. 

Requesting Post-Election Tests
If you last administered a version of the test before a state-wide/national election some items on the test relating to elected and appointed officials will change. Please note that these will be new items and will not be updated on tests that have already been delivered. Because it is necessary to change the Civics test often, ATI places the date of the revision in its title. This procedure will ensure receipt of the most current version and help avoid confusion.

We hope this is helpful information. If you have any questions, contact us at edmgmtsvsgrp@ati-online.com.

Monday, October 9, 2017

New One-Click Benchmark Performance Levels Reporting Widget by ATI

The new Benchmark Performance Levels reporting widget accessible from the Teacher Dashboard summarizes multiple measures of student performance on district benchmark assessments (e.g., mathematics, English language arts, and other subject areas) for your entire class at once. The colorful pie chart and interactive data displays of assessment results can be used to guide instruction, intervention, and enrichment using the Galileo Digital Curriculum Platform and Galileo online lessons (e.g., Dialogs). Benchmark Performance Levels reporting widget highlights follow.

One-click “Big Picture Class Summary” for each assessment including: 

  • color-coded performance levels (e.g., highly proficient, partially proficient) including number and percent of students at each level
  • easy-to-interpret Developmental Level (DL) Score range for each performance level
  • instant access to number of students assessed, average percent correct, average DL Score, and average percent of standards mastered for the class


One-click “Detailed Class Portrait” for each assessment including:

  • total points, percent correct, DL Score, and performance level for each student
  • color-coded standards mastery level for each standard assessed (e.g., exceeds standard, meets standard)
  • item count for each standard assessed
  • one-click access to all items used to assess each standard, including item meta-data (e.g., Depth of Knowledge)
  • rapid “Data Search” allowing search by student name, total points, percent correct, or DL score 
  • one-click “Data Sorting” in ascending or descending order by student names, total points, percent correct, DL Score, percent of standards mastered, or standards mastery category  
  • instant Comparative Analysis Report summarizing assessment results for the class, school, and district
  • one-click “Excel Export” for use in conducting further analysis and for creating additional graphical displays such as pivot tables and bar graphs
Register to attend the Thursday, November 2 Learning on Demand session "Exploring the New Benchmark Performance Levels Reporting Widget." Margaret Johnson, ATI Professional Development Specialist, will walk you through accessing and interpreting data from the Benchmark Performance Levels reporting widget. She will illustrate how the summary data as well as the individual student data can be generated which helps to inform instruction and monitor student progress throughout the year. The Learning on Demand session is designed specifically for teachers and specialists responsible for instructional interventions and progress monitoring.

Register on the "Upcoming" tab in the Training Center.


One-click reporting options available in the new Benchmark Performance Levels reporting widget.
Additional Sources of Interest

Monday, October 2, 2017

Critical Tipping Points in Gathering, Understanding, and Using Formative Data

Solutions for the 21st Century Classroom



Presented by



Hosted by



Districts from across Arizona were represented at the Leadership Seminar to Optimize Implementation held last week at the Phoenix Elementary School District office. The room of packed educators, principals, directors of curriculum and instruction, directors of assessment, instructional coaches, and superintendents interacted and brainstormed with facilitators Susan Jacobs, School Improvement Facilitator Comprehensive School Assistance Program with WestEd and Sarah Callahan Estrada, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist and Project Manager for Galileo Development with ATI as they guided them through the optimization of district and school initiatives related to gathering, understanding, and using formative data. 

“Tipping points are a reaffirmation of the potential for change and the power of intelligent action. Look at the world around you.It may seem like an immovable implacable place. It’s not. With the slightest push – in just the right place- it can be tipped.”Malcolm Gladwell

The morning began with a brief discussion of real world leadership goals and challenges complemented by a description of available support services from WestEd and ATI. The remainder of the interactive seminar focused on helping the leaders address four critical tipping points to maximize student and staff success in their schools and districts:
  • teachers and students benefit from an engaging, relevant, and appropriately rigorous curriculum
  • data-driven instruction must be based on trusted and authentic data
  • instruction must respond to the implications of student performance data in targeted and authentic ways
  • leadership requires the tools to combat initiative fatigue and data overload

Participants walked away with suggested strategies, resources, and action plans to implement immediately in their school or district. Leaders from both WestEd and ATI were available at the end of the seminar and provided needs evaluations to educational leaders. Together they identified next steps for long term solutions supporting a relentless approach to quality implementation of curriculum and instruction promoting student learning.

To find out more about the seminar, access the slide deck. If your school/district would like a needs evaluation, contact us at the following:

Jason Kane Feld                                                                               Bob Rosenfeld
Vice President, Corporate Projects                                                    Senior Manager, Field Services
Assessment Technology Incorporated                                               WestEd
800-367-4762                                                                                    415-717-5450
jason@ati-online.com                                                                        rrosenf@wested.org

Monday, September 25, 2017

ATI Releases Learning on Demand Schedule

ATI offers comprehensive, customized professional development and training provided by a team of experienced trainers well-versed in both educational theory and practice. Professional Development options address all aspects of Galileo Online implementation and management. We understand flexibility is important and that is why we offer multiple ways to become proficient users. We are excited to announce that the Learning on Demand fall schedule is now released. Take a look at the offerings and register today.


Learning on Demand
Offered throughout the year, at multiple times and on multiple days, these complimentary webinar sessions focus on a single component within one of the three main PD topic areas. Once recorded, they are available on demand in the Online Help Files.
New fall schedule:  K-12 Learning on Demand  or  Pre-K Learning on Demand.


On-site Professional Development
These offerings are grouped into three main topic areas (integrated assessment, curriculum, and instructional effectiveness). Offerings in each can be configured to meet the unique needs of your district or charter school. Sessions offer innovative and practical solutions sensitive to the everyday challenges faced by educators.


Small Group Webinars
Live, customized webinar trainings reflective of individual districts’ needs. These complimentary, small group webinar trainings generally focus on a single component within main topic area.

For more information about our professional development offerings contact the ATI Professional Development Department. 

Monday, September 18, 2017

Leadership Seminar to Optimize Implementation

Critical tipping points in gathering, understanding, and using formative data
Presented by
   

Hosted by
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
8:00 am MST Registration opens, light refreshments
8:30 am – 11:30 am MST Seminar with optional networking and needs evaluation until 12:30 pm MST
Phoenix Elementary School District #1 Boardroom - map
1817 N. 7th Street, Phoenix, 85006
Parking available off E. Granada Road or E. Palm Lane
Complimentary interactive, informative, and networking seminar

Join us for an interactive seminar designed to guide the optimization of district and school initiatives related to gathering, understanding, and using formative data. The seminar will begin with a brief discussion of real world leadership challenges and available implementation support services from WestEd and ATI. The remainder of the seminar will focus on four critical tipping points district and school leaders can address to maximize student and staff success:

  • teachers and students benefit from an engaging, relevant, and appropriately rigorous curriculum
  • data-driven instruction must be based on trusted and authentic data
  • instruction must respond to the implications of student performance data in targeted and authentic ways
  • leadership requires the tools to combat initiative fatigue and data overload

Participants will walk away with suggested strategies, resources, and action plans to implement now in their school or district. At the end of the seminar, time will be provided to network with peers to share experiences, challenges, and solutions. WestEd and ATI staff will be available to conduct needs evaluations and help participants identify next steps for the longer term. 
REGISTER

Monday, September 11, 2017

New Science Offerings in Massachusetts

ATI has developed sets of science assessments aligned to the new Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering (STE) standards for grades 5 through 8. Each set consists of a pretest, three comprehensive assessments, and a posttest. They are all based on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) blueprints and have been constructed according to the guidelines released by the MA Department of Education (DOE).

If you are interested in high school science assessments, ATI offers sets of science assessments in biology, chemistry, and physics. Review the science and technology/engineering blueprints by grade.  

It is important to note that ATI pretests and the posttests can be used for instructional effectiveness purposes. ATI’s state-of-the-art statistical analyses and actionable Galileo reports provide data from the pretests and posttests to inform professional development. Additionally, the data can be used in support of both enhanced teaching and leadership skills and the elevation of student performance.

The Educational Management Services team will gladly help you get started with the MA Galileo K-12 science assessments. Contact them today

For more information on the 2016 MA STE Standards, the DOE has compiled a list of frequently asked questions which can be found at http://www.doe.mass.edu/stem/standards/faq.html.

Monday, September 4, 2017

Galileo K-12 Approved for Use with New 2017-18 Exemption to Retention in Move On When Ready Legislation

The Arizona State Board of Education has approved use of the Galileo K-12 Instructional Improvement and Effectiveness System (IIES) in assessing 3rd grade student reading skills following a new exemption to retention in Move on When Reading (MOWR) legislation. The new exemption states:

“Beginning with the 2017-2018 school year, a new exemption to retention requirement added to A.R.S.§15-701 that states a 3rd grade student who is retained because he/she did not meet the cut score on the reading portion of AzMERIT can still be promoted if he/she has demonstrated or subsequently demonstrates sufficient reading skills or adequate progress towards sufficient reading skills of the 3rd grade reading standards as evidenced through a collection of reading assessments approved by the State Board (SBE), which includes an alternative standardized reading assessment approved by the SBE.”

This change to the MOWR legislation requires augmented reporting within district/charter literacy plans. Galileo K-12 offers the tools and technology educators need to assess and report student mastery or progress toward mastery of Arizona English Language Arts Reading Standards.

About the Arizona’s Move on When Reading: MOWR legislation is designed to provide students with evidence-based reading instruction kindergarten through third grade in order to position them for success as they progress through school, college, and the workforce. The intent of the legislation focuses on early identification and intervention for struggling readers and to provide each student the level of support he/she needs to become a strong reader. 

Any questions about the new exemption or MOWR in general should be directed to the Arizona Department of Education at www.azed.gov/MOWR or moveonwhenreading@azed.gov.


About Galileo K-12: Galileo K-12 IIES is comprehensive, standards-based, research supported, and aligned to Arizona Science, Non-State Tested, and Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards. Galileo provides an array of curriculum, assessment, instructional effectiveness, reporting, and forecasting tools. Use of the system facilitates advancements in teaching strategies, assessments, and implementation of instructional effectiveness initiatives. Galileo contains multiple patented tools that make it possible to use assessment information to guide differentiated instruction aligned to district/charter pacing guides. Information gathered through Galileo can also inform professional development decisions. For more information contact ATI at 877.442.5453 or GalileoInfo@ati-online.com.

Monday, August 28, 2017

Bulk Scheduler Now Available to Class-Level Users

The ability for users to bulk schedule tests, assignments, and units has been extended to class-level users. If you are a teacher instructing more than one class and wish to schedule the same assessment, assignment, or unit to multiple classes, you may now do so easily and efficiently with just a few clicks of your mouse. The Bulk Scheduler may be found in the Assessment area of Galileo.

The Bulk Scheduler tool in Galileo allows the scheduling of  grade-level tests across the district/charter school and may be used for offline and online assessments.


The Bulk Scheduler enables a class-level users to extend many of the same testing features that exist on the Class Schedule Test page, such as establishing test times, the posting of scores, access to an online Dictionary/Thesaurus, the randomization of questions, and setting a test password. If a test schedule must be modified, teachers may modify a bulk test scheduler from the Bulk Schedule History page.

For more information and resources about Galileo technology, check the Galileo Help files.

Monday, August 21, 2017

Customized Galileo Launchpads Drive Efficiency

Launchpads by ATI make accessing and navigating around Galileo K-12 and the K-12 Student-Parent Center interfaces a breeze. The engineers at ATI have designed the Staff Launchpad for teachers and administrators to drive their efficiency to new levels. When signed into Galileo, the educator will be taken directly to their own Launchpad where they will find colorful, quick-access navigational tiles. The default set of tiles for staff includes commonly used Galileo interfaces (e.g. Dashboards) based on their role as a teacher or administrator. Users can personalize their Launchpad by adding tiles for other Galileo interfaces, creating their own tiles with links to external websites, or deleting tiles. Users can also change the color, icon, and order of the navigational tiles.


Find valuable resources in Galileo by accessing the Help files and search Launchpads to discover the variety of resources available at your fingertips! Click each image to enlarge.
The Student Launchpad offers the same ease-of-use as the Staff Launchpad. Upon signing into the Galileo K-12 Student-Parent Center, students will find their Launchpad with four tiles providing quick access to the Take Test, Assignments/Dialogs, Test Results, and Calendar interfaces.  

If you have not customized your Launchpad, what are you waiting for?  Check out the resources in the Galileo Help files, access our website, or contact your friendly Field Services Coordinator for a personalized demo on this and other valuable features in Galileo.  

You can also view firsthand the innovative approaches ATI has taken to make sure you stay ahead of the curve. Register for the complimentary webinar New 2017-18 Assessment, Reporting, and Instructional Tools being offered Tuesday, August 29 at 1:00 pm MST.

Monday, August 14, 2017

New 2017-18 Assessment, Reporting, and Instructional Tools Webinar

Co-hosted by Arizona Charter Schools Association and 
Assessment Technology Incorporated

Intended Audience: Administrators, curriculum and/or 
assessment coaches, and teachers 

Join Ildiko Laczko-Kerr, Ph.D. and Jason K. Feld, Ph.D. on August 29 at 1:00 p.m. MST for a complimentary webinar. Dr. Laczko-Kerr will introduce the new Galileo K-12 technology, explain why the technology is important to ACSA, and share how it impacts teachers, coaches, administrators, and students. Dr. Feld will showcase Galileo’s enhanced K-12 tools engineered to help educators promote learning. The innovations consist of assessment, reporting, and instructional tools. Attendees will view firsthand the streamlined Galileo K-12 interfaces and learn about the newest ease-of-use and customization features. These features allow the tailoring of Galileo to meet group and individual educator and student goals. The webinar will provide expanded details related to:
  • Utilizing student testing tools similar to those on AzMERIT for both formative and benchmark assessments
  • Personalizing the new Galileo Launchpads to gain rapid access to key interfaces
  • Understanding Galileo Student Growth Percentiles for Arizona
  • Using the new Test Builder and Item Builder tools
  • Accessing updated, and additional standards-aligned K-12 item banks including technology enhanced items to measure student learning
  • Highlighting current implementations of the Digital Curriculum Platform in Arizona

The webinar will wrap up with an overview of optional Galileo integrations available this fall including Key Data Systems Inspect® Item Bank, Crane Schools Dynamic Curriculum Strategies, and GradeCam scanning technology. A brief question and answer session will conclude the webinar. Register

Monday, August 7, 2017

Streamline Formative Assessment Creation with Access to ATI Item Banks

Access the ATI Community and Secure Item Banks to streamline the creation of a wide variety of assessments including formative, end-of-course, interim, benchmark, instructional effectiveness pretest and posttest. The item banks accessible via Galileo® K-12 offer educators the variety of standards-aligned items required to engage students in complex thinking critical in being college and career ready. District/charter formative and benchmark assessment needs in math, English language arts (ELA), and science can be fully addressed using the ATI item banks. The Inspect® item banks can also be accessed through Galileo. Together the ATI and Inspect® item banks total more than 140,000 items all of which can be available through Galileo.

The items within ATI Community and Secure item banks are rigorous and innovative. The item banks provide 19 item types and over 90,000 items in K-12 math, ELA, and science (including more than 16,000 technology enhanced [TE] items). Plus, approximately 800 more items are added each month. The items are written to encourage the use and the development of high order thinking skills. You may be wondering how we do this. Take a look at one of our past blogs that walks you through the item development process and describes the gold-standard multi-tiered review used by the ATI on-staff item-writing experts.

ATI continues to expand options for educators such as through our partnership with Key Data Systems to offer the Inspect® Item Bank within Galileo K-12. Inspect® offers more than 50,000 items including K-12 items in math, ELA, and science, as well as items for history grades 5 through high school. History items are aligned to California standards. The Inspect® Item Bank provides access to 14 item types including all item types currently used on statewide tests.

ATI Item Banks are searchable and metadata can be used to refine item searches. Teachers have access in Galileo to a variety of powerful metadata for items such as standard, Depth of Knowledge (DOK) level, scoring rules, answer rationales, and IRT item parameters including difficulty, discrimination, and guessing. You can view the metadata along with item content that supports the development of assessments and the interpretation of student results. 
Metadata can be used to refine item searches and is included with the item content supporting development of assessments.

To learn more about our item banks check out our website or schedule an online demonstration with one of our friendly Field Services Coordinators.