Leadership Seminar to Optimize Implementation

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

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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. 
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Save the Date: April 10 Spring Seminar

Evidence-Based Digital Curriculum Takes Center Stage in Arizona Classrooms

Get a first-hand look at Dynamic Curriculum Strategies, a curriculum solution created by Crane Elementary School District (CESD) and offered through the Galileo^® Digital Curriculum Platform from Assessment Technology Incorporated (ATI). Attend this statewide seminar illustrating how the cutting edge, evidence-based curriculum that is completely aligned to Arizona State Standards can be easily implemented by all Arizona school districts/charters.

Dynamic Curriculum Strategies offers a standards-based curriculum for grades K-8, affiliated resources, aligned assessments, and reporting all-in-one cost effective approach. This learning system offers a logical approach to assessment and interactive instruction with opportunities to personalize learning supporting students with a spectrum of needs. The curriculum is provided through the Galileo Digital Curriculum Platform where it is integrated with the Galileo assessment and reporting components. The intuitive Platform makes it easy to merge curriculum content with formative/benchmark assessments and reporting. The Platform also empowers educators to deliver evidence-based differentiated instruction and quickly evaluate the impact of curriculum and instruction on student mastery of standards. Plus, teachers can access on-demand instruction and assessment resources from ATI, EngageNY, KHAN ACADEMY®, and LearnZillion and easily link them to Dynamic Curriculum Strategies offerings.

Together CESD and ATI are pioneering the next generation of educational innovations through delivery of the best in curriculum, educational practice, online technology, assessment, and research. We invite you to come see for yourself by hearing from local leaders and participating in a curriculum strategies breakout session. You won’t want to miss this breakthrough event.

Date: Monday, April 10, 2017 from 12:30 pm to 4:00 pm

Location: University of Phoenix - Main Campus, Room 401, 1625 W. Fountainhead Parkway, Tempe AZ 85282

Cost: The seminar is complimentary.

Parking: A complimentary parking garage is located on the east side of the building. Please do not park in the visitor, reserved, or student spaces.

Light refreshments will be served.

Register today to join us for this enlightening seminar. 

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New Teacher Dashboard Now Live, Admin Dashboard Coming Soon

All stakeholders have access from Galileo Dashboards to intervention tools that assist in improving student achievement. ATI is in the process of making a number of exciting enhancements to the Galileo K-12 application including to the Teacher Dashboard and Admin Dashboard (formerly the School Performance Dashboard). These enhancements benefit users by offering one-click accessibility, responsive design, efficiency, integration, smart technology, and convenience. 

Many educators are looking for a quick method to access enrichment and remediation activities. The new Teacher Dashboard, now available to all districts, makes it easier than ever for teachers to access actionable assessment information along with recommendations for student groupings, targeted standards for differentiated instruction, and links to standards-based instructional materials (e.g., Instructional Dialogs, materials from KHAN ACADEMY®). This can easily be done via recommendations in the Instruction Performance Tracker and the Intervention Alert Reports. As shown in the following screen shot, both reports are accessed via drill-downs from the Teacher Dashboard. 

View a brief tutorial covering the new Teacher Dashboard also access it and other videos from YouTube.
View a 30 minute webinar on Galileo's enhanced interfaces.

Teacher Dashboard - click to enlarge

Revisions to the Admin Dashboard are nearly complete and will be released soon. The Admin Dashboard supports the evaluation of student growth and achievement, along with intervention activities at the school- and district-level. The Admin Dashboard will include similar enhancements found in the Teacher Dashboard to help improve the ease-of-use and accessibility from a variety of devices. The following screen shot offers a peek inside the new Admin Dashboard. 

Admin Dashboard - click to enlarge

Contact a friendly field services coordinator for a demo or further information.

Discover the First of its Kind: The Galileo® K-12 Online Digital Curriculum Platform Technology Innovation and Applied Research on Learning that Connect Dynamic Curriculum, Comprehensive Assessment, and Actionable Reporting in One Practical and Complete System

Register Now!

Recognizing the importance of integrating dynamic digital curriculum with research-based assessment, ATI has developed the next generation of Galileo K-12 Online technology, the Galileo Digital Curriculum Platform. Built on the foundation of ATI's nationally recognized Research and Development Program, the platform creates a seamless integration between standards-based instruction, balanced assessment, and Dashboard reporting to promote learning. 

This webinar will highlight 8 key points within the Galileo K-12 Online Digital Curriculum Platform:

• Item Response Theory
• Multi-Level Differentiated Instruction
• Alignment with Your State Standards
• Streamlined Online Curriculum Creation
• One-Stop Interactive Dashboards
• Platform Agility and Adaptability
• Standards-Aligned Item Banks for K-12
• K-12 Multimodal Instructional Content

Intended Audience: Curriculum and Assessment Directors, Curriculum and Assessment Teams, District Administrators, Instructional Specialists, and Teachers

Please register to join Dr. Jason K. Feld, Ph.D., with ATI for this complimentary webinar on Wednesday, January 20 from 11:00 am to noon EST to examine innovative technology that connects dynamic curriculum, comprehensive assessment, and actionable reporting into one practical and complete system.

Coming Soon: New Galileo K-12 Online Student-Parent Center Interface

ATI is in the process of making several enhancements to Galileo K-12 Online that will benefit educators, administrators, students, and parents. The most recent enhancement to Galileo the new, coming soon K-12 Student-Parent Center interface. The Center is designed to manage communications so that students and parents are provided with complete information regarding instruction and assessment used to guide instruction toward the achievement of valued educational goals.

The features of the Center make it easy to use by both students and parents. The Center ease of use features include:

• Ability for students and parents to email the teacher.
• User-friendly icons and graphical representations.
• Responsive design to accommodate use of the Center on various screen sizes.
• Search capability.  
• Integration of Google Translate enabling families whose primary language is not English (e.g., the family’s primary language is Spanish) to use the Center efficiently.
• A convenient option to choose when to integrate the new interface. Districts and charter schools have the option to immediately switch to the new interface or to continue using the classic interface accompanied with a preview of the new interface. 

The Calendar Dashboard quickly provides a snap shot of scheduled assignments or assessments. Click here to see larger. 

Not only has the functionality of the K-12 Student-Parent Center changed but the look has, too. While districts and charters can still personalize their Student-Parent Center through the inclusion of the district/charter logo, the Center now provides each student with a page that can be personalized with photos and information.

Watch for more information on the K-12 Student-Parent Center in the coming weeks. Contact our friendly and knowledgeable Field Services Coordinators to learn more. 

Galileo Dashboard Reports Facilitate Differentiated Instruction

Galileo® K-12 Online Dashboard reports provide educators with the right tools for facilitating data-driven, standards-based differentiated instruction of three essential types:  

• skill mastery instruction guided through information from the Test Monitoring Report and Detailed Item Analysis Report;
• standards mastery instruction guided through information from the Intervention Alert and Instruction Performance Tracker Report; and
• pattern of progress mastery instruction guided through information from the Student Growth and Achievement Report.

In addition, Galileo provides students with rapid access to a broad diversity of differentiated instructional learning opportunities aligned with their learning needs and pattern of progress. These opportunities include resources available in Galileo Instructional Dialogs coupled with district/educator developed/determined materials and with resources available on the web such as those from KHAN ACADEMY®*. Both local resources and those from the web can be delivered through customized Instructional Dialogs in Galileo.
    

Galileo Instructional Dialogs offer students interactive, multi-modal opportunities to learn and apply skills. In addition, practice items with real-time feedback are embedded throughout the Dialogs along with a brief formative assessment at the end of instruction to help measure impact. Click to view larger. 

Galileo also provides direct links to web-based instructional resources such as those from KHAN ACADEMY® As with Dialogs, these materials may be viewed, selected and scheduled for a student, class or tiered intervention group. Click to view larger. 

These unique Galileo features facilitate rapid planning and scheduling of learning opportunities for all students. Contact our friendly and knowledgeable Field Services Coordinators to learn more or read more and view an illustration of planning differentiated instruction at the standards mastery level. 

* PLEASE NOTE: All KHAN ACADEMY® content is available for free at www.khanacademy.org.


Testing to the Teaching

Very soon at ATI we will be releasing Instructional Dialogs that include Technology Enhanced (TE) items. The reason for this initiative is to further our goal of bringing assessment as close as possible to instruction. Everyone involved in education is well aware of the problems associated with teaching to the test. Instruction becomes narrowed and limited to prepare for the assessment. Learning is restricted.  However, if one turns that around 180 degrees and puts teaching at the head of the train, then there are many potential benefits.

Embedding TE items directly in instructional content allows assessments to match instruction in a finely tuned way that hasn’t really been possible in the past. Assessments can be built that reflect the steps that a teacher wants students to master in acquiring a specific larger skill. Say, for instance, that the focus of a lesson is the numerical fluency skills that will enable a student to easily calculate a problem such as correct change from $20.00 for a $4.30 purchase. Common Core emphasizes the importance of not only correctly calculating that $15.70 is due, but also completely understanding and being able to explain why the calculation works out that way. An explanation might go something like the following:

1. $4.30 is $.70 less than $5.00 
2. $5.00 is $15.00 less than $20.00 
3. Therefore $4.30 is $15.00 + $.70 = $15.70 less than $20.00

TE items embedded in instruction afford a teacher with the opportunity to evaluate whether students have grasped what they have been taught and can provide a rationale for their approach.

It has long been recognized that such assessments are an important part of teaching. Recent technological advances make it possible to gather valid and reliable data of the sort that would have previously required standardized testing while not diverging from the focus of instruction. Assessment data that informs decisions and allows for easy tracking of outcomes can flow naturally out of instruction rather than being a distraction.  

John Bergan, Ph.D.
Vice President Research and Development

New Directions in Digital Technology and Curriculum Development Complimentary Arizona Seminar

We are co-hosting an informative seminar with Alhambra Elementary School District in just a few weeks.  Make sure you save time and attend the morning of Thursday, October 16 for Education on the Move in Arizona - New Directions in Digital Technology and Curriculum Development. The event will be held at the Alhambra District Office, Conference Center Boardroom from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. noon MST.

The statewide seminar will illustrate the ways in which technology-based education is being implemented in Arizona. A panel discussion comprised of local leaders from Alhambra Elementary School District, Dysart Unified School District, Higley Unified School District, Tucson Unified School District, and Vail Unified School District will share how they are implementing technology in support of curriculum development, instruction, and assessment. ATI will discuss the newest Galileo enhancements designed to provide educators, administrators, and content specialists with technology to transform and integrate local curriculum, assessment, and instructional practices.

The seminar will provide an up-close look at district initiatives and cutting-edge Galileo technology designed to support the transformation and integration of local curriculum, assessment, and instructional practices. Following the presentations and panel discussion, there will be a question and answer period. Light refreshments will be served.

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Galileo Supports Instruction

Galileo K-12 Online includes an array of instructional features, fully integrated with assessment to support educators in developing, implementing, evaluating, and revising instructional activities and curriculum.

One of ATI’s research and development initiatives involves the design of a Dialogic Curriculum Model using Galileo Instructional Dialog technology. Dialog technology supports the design, and implementation of customized standards-aligned district curricular materials such as unit plans, lesson plans, and assignments including, if desired, short formative quizzes. Dialogs can be used as part of initial instruction, differentiated instruction, or as remediation/intervention support after assessments identify student needs. Dialogs can also provide students with guided practice with innovative item types, or to support the administration of performance tasks requiring students to complete extended projects.

For example, Dialogs targeted to the needs of specific students based on assessment data can be identified and scheduled via the Instruction Performance Tracker. Galileo currently includes more than 1,600 Instructional Dialogs developed by ATI’s experienced Assessment and Instructional Design staff in math, reading, and science in grades one through twelve aligned to state standards as well as the Common Core State Standards.

A typical Dialog designed for use as a lesson or assignment establishes an anticipatory set in the introduction, defines objectives, provides key vocabulary, includes direct instruction with modeling, and provides guided practice with immediate feedback. Teachers can create their own Dialogs from scratch or by importing existing instructional resources. Additional Dialogs created by Galileo users and provided for shared use are also available in multiple grades and content areas.

Galileo makes it possible for educators to rapidly develop, deploy, and monitor the impact of curricula and instructional resources to maximize student learning.

Learn more by contacting your ATI Field Services Coordinator at GalileoInfo@ati-online.com.