Innovative Technology Supporting Common Core and Instructional Effectiveness Implementation

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

Galileo technology offers rapid and flexible access to innovative assessment, reporting, curriculum and instructional effectiveness tools. Assessments are valid, reliable, and aligned to standards such as Common Core and individual state versions with items reflective of consortium assessment approaches. Dashboard information provides ready access to actionable, reliable, and valid data. Galileo’s Digital Curriculum Platform supports building and implementing local online district/charter specific curricula. The instructional effectiveness component offers educator ratings and reliable and valid measures of student progress for both state- and non-state-tested content areas and contains an Evaluation Score Compiler that compiles ratings, student performance and other information into one overall evaluation score.
System management tools assist educators in establishing instructional goals reflecting local curriculum, assessing goal attainment, forecasting standards mastery, and using assessment information to guide differentiated instruction and professional development.
Learn more about Galileo’s innovative technology.  Contact us today for an online demonstration.  Check the ATI events calendar for a conference or seminar near you.

Attention: Illinois educators, register for a regional seminar April 24 focusing on Galileo K-12 Online innovative technology addressing Common Core and educator effectiveness implementation co-hosted by Meredosia-Chambersburg School District #11 (MCSD) and Assessment Technology Incorporated (ATI).

Upcoming Seminar: Common Core and Educator Effectiveness Implementation

ATI and Meredosia-Chambersburg School District #11 are co-hosting the complimentary “A Galileo K-12 Online Journey through Common Core and Educator Effectiveness Implementation” seminar on April 24^th, 2015.  The seminar will begin with an open forum discussion about the challenges and Successes of school districts in Illinois and other states implementing Common Core State Standards and educator effectiveness legislation.  The discussion will be followed by an in-depth exploration of the Galileo K-12 Online Instructional Improvement and Educator Effectiveness System and how technology and research innovations within Galileo are being utilized to support locally designed, standards-based education and educator effectiveness initiatives. 

Next, MCSD will discuss their first year of Galileo implementation, highlighting District goals, approach to implementation, success, and plans for 2015-16.  A question and answer period will conclude the seminar.

For more information or to register, click here.
 

Digital Curriculum Platform Designed for 21st Century K–12 Classrooms

The Galileo Digital Curriculum Platform by ATI supports rapid dynamic curriculum development integrating instruction with assessment to promote learning. Galileo digital curriculums may include multimedia content, technology-enhanced assessments, and tools supporting online synchronous and asynchronous communication between students and teachers. A Galileo digital curriculum consists of two major components: a series of online Instructional Units defining the scope and sequence of instruction and offering a variety of resources to guide instruction, and within each Unit a series of online Instructional Dialogs enabling the online delivery of assessment and instruction. A series of Units can form the complete curriculum for a particular subject and grade.

To learn more about ATI’s Digital Curriculum Platform features and benefits, contact us today.

The new Digital Curriculum Explorer widget on the Teaching Dashboard provides convenient access to digital curriculums containing Units and Dialogs.

Innovative Technology for Children from Infancy through Age Five

Galileo Pre-K Online from ATI provides a data-driven, standards-aligned approach to the Electronic Management of Learning for children from infancy through age five. One of the first companies to offer educators online assessment and curriculum tools, Galileo is built on the principles of science, supported by a commitment to research, and guided by a vision that everyone should benefit from the opportunities and transformations of technology.

Today, Galileo Pre-K Online provides early childhood educators and other stakeholders a complete and fully integrated assessment, curriculum, and reporting system that links assessment, planning, individualization and program progress. Galileo Pre-K Online utilizes the Instructional Intervention Cycle and provides users with reliable and valid data on which to base learning opportunities and program management decisions. The cycle begins with goal setting and planning and is followed by implementation, then evaluation (data gathering and analysis); the results of evaluation inform decisions guiding the next goal setting and planning stages.

ATI’s patented technology offers innovative, research-based, multi-method, customized assessment and curriculum tools that assist educators meet local, state, and federal requirements. Join us in Washington, D.C. for the largest national event devoted to the Head Start and Early Head Start community. Visit ATI Exhibit #424 at the National Head Start Association Annual Conference and Expo for a demonstration of Galileo Pre-K Online.

ATI Supports Districts and Charters Transitioning to AzMERIT

Beginning this spring, Arizona's Measurement of Educational Readiness to Inform Teaching (AzMERIT) will be administered as the new statewide assessment to measure student ability in ELA and math. ATI is supporting districts and charters in the transition to AzMERIT in a number of ways including: 

• Creation of assessment items aligned to Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards (AZCCRS) and, in many instances, reflective of the technology enhanced (TE) items planned for the online testing environments by American Institutes for Research (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 AzMERIT blueprints and to district pacing guides. In 2014-15 virtually all Galileo benchmark and instructional effectiveness assessments in ELA and math being administered are aligned to the AZCCRS. Assessments aligned to AzMERIT blueprints will be available for administration this spring. For the 2015-16 academic year, ATI will further refine the Arizona premade assessments to reflect AzMERIT assessments.

ATI is actively responding to district and charter needs related to the transition to AzMERIT. Although it is not possible at this time to determine the effect on forecasting of the transition to AzMERIT, it is likely that current forecasting estimates will continue to be of value.  Thus, ATI suggests the use of forecasting reports. For example, it may be wise to consider intervention for students at all risk-level classifications, including those classified as On Course. Using the content recommended in reports such as the Group Benchmark Profile drilldown from the Aggregate Multi-Test Report, or the Instruction Performance Tracker on the Galileo Teaching Dashboard can guide these focused interventions. Focused intervention efforts should improve the probability of student success, regardless of decisions made by the state regarding cut points for student performance level classifications on the AzMERIT assessment.

We look forward to working together to ensure successful performance by district and charter students on AzMERIT. For information on how ATI can support and help in preparing students for AzMERIT, contact ATI. For further information about AzMERIT, the Arizona Department of Education AzMERIT website has many resources.

Arizona Civics Model Test

Assessment Technology Incorporated is pleased to announce the availability of a civics test to measure student progress toward successfully completing Arizona's new statewide civics test.

All items are drawn from the same pool of items used by the state of Arizona, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services citizenship test. This oral exam of prospective citizens has been adapted to fit a convenient selected-response item format that can be administered online or using printed test booklets and scannable answer sheets. The items have been further tailored for Arizona usage by the inclusion of Arizona's elected officials in the items relating to the positions within American state and federal government.

Please contact your Field Service Coordinator or the ATI Education Management Services department to schedule the civics test.

Galileo Comprehensive Assessment System

Meet district and charter school assessment needs with Galileo’s standards-aligned comprehensive assessment system. Galileo assessment solutions include benchmark, formative, screening and placement tests, plus interim and final course examinations, pretests and posttests, early literacy and early math benchmarks, computerized adaptive tests, and instructional effectiveness assessments.

Perhaps the most important benefit of a comprehensive assessment system is that it supports the ability to adapt to continuous change. Assessment needs change continuously and it was important to us to design a system capable of accommodating change. For example, a well-designed system such as Galileo has:

• the ability accommodate continuously changing standards,
• the capability to rapidly align items to those standards,
• dynamic item banks that expand continuously,
• the capability to generate innovative item types that will be required as the transition to online assessment accelerates, and
• the capacity to incorporate new types of assessments to meet changing needs.

A comprehensive assessment system should always be and will always be a work in progress. Nothing less will meet the educational challenges of the 21st century.

For more information on how ATI can support your district or charter with a comprehensive assessment system designed to promote student learning, contact us today.

Learn more about Comprehensive Assessment System.