The Galileo K-12 Student-Parent Center Makes Access to Information Quick and Easy

The new Galileo K-12 Student-Parent Center helps to manage communications between teachers and students as well as between teachers and parents. The Center is designed to increase student engagement in the learning process in part by communicating to the student pertinent information concerning scheduled lessons, assignments, assessments, and assessment results. The page has also been designed to communicate important information to parents including information on student learning, curriculum, and instructional resources for home use. The interfaces for students and parents are intuitive in nature and provide easy-to-follow navigational icons. The student and parent functions are made concise through three main features:

• Dashboard 
• Calendar 
• Dialog Notes

The Dashboard provides students and parents easy access to scheduled activities and assessment results. Students have direct access to scheduled online tests as well as to assignments and lessons administered in Instructional Dialogs. Students and parents also have access to instructional resources and assessment results presented in easy to interpret charts, graphs, and lists. In the case of secure online assessments such as District benchmark tests, a teacher-issued password is issued in order to control student access and to maintain the security of the assessment content.  

From the K-12 Student-Parent Center Dashboard, students and parents may view data that indicates how the student is performing on assessments. The data are presented graphically as shown above and also in list form for easy viewing. Click to view larger.

The K-12 Student-Parent Center Calendar organizes content in a way that gives a view of instruction and assessment over time. The Calendar can be viewed by month, week, or day. Like the Dashboard, the Calendar provides access to scheduled assessments, classroom quizzes, online instructional dialogic lessons, assignments, and instructional resources. The student can see at a glance their scheduled activities including due dates. 

The K-12 Student-Parent Center Calendar provides students a quick view of and access to all scheduled assessments and assignments. Click to view larger.

From the Dialog Notes feature, students can review notes that they have made while participating in an online Dialog lesson or assignment. Dialog notes provide detailed information about the student’s progress through an online lesson or assignment as well as direct access to the Dialogs containing notes.

To learn more about the Center please contact a friendly Field Services Coordinator. 

The Categorical Growth Score Management Page

It is now possible for district Instructional Effectiveness (IE) administrators to modify and customize the data elements being factored into a teacher’s Categorical Growth Score. Data elements may be added and removed as needed from the Categorical Growth Score Management page.  

The Categorical Growth Summary widget provides data on whether the teachers or selected schools have maintained the expected growth of their students in the selected subjects. Galileo has automated the way student assessment data is linked to teachers, however sometimes district like to customize the assessments, classes and/or students pulled into a teacher’s categorical growth score.   

The Categorical Growth Score Management page is available to District- and School-level users who have been given the User Has Access to Instructional Effectiveness Tools permission. If provided the appropriate IE permissions, the Settings icon will appear at the top of the Categorical Growth Summary widget.

For instructions on using this new tool, click here.

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. 

Instructional Dialogs

Galileo K-12 Online features dynamic instructional resource tools that allow educators to link targeted instruction to  assessment. Instructors can use the innovative technology of Instructional Dialogs to prepare the student for upcoming assessments by implementing standards-based lessons targeting instructional outcomes designated in the grade level curriculum. Instructional Dialogs can also be used as interventions or remediation to differentiate instruction after an assessment and improve the capabilities of students with a need indicated by the assessment results.

More than 2,000 dialogs have been built by ATI staff and by instructors in client-districts to address standards and skills that will enhance student mastery of the curricular goals of instruction. Teachers can use existing Instructional Dialogs, build their own Instructional Dialogs, and even modify existing Instructional Dialogs to tailor them to their goals and students' needs. Instructional Dialogs built by one teacher can be shared with other teachers through Galileo K-12 Online. Instructional Dialogs can be assigned to individual students, entire classes, or district-wide. The flexible nature of Instructional Dialogs enables teachers to use use them as a presentation-style lesson in front of the entire class, as a student-focused task in a lab or one-to-one computer resourced classroom, or even as an assignment outside of class for students with Internet access.

To learn more about using Instructional Dialogs, please contact our friendly and knowledgeable Field Services Coordinators to learn more.

Dynamic Digital Curriculum Platform: Another Innovative Solution from ATI

The Galileo Digital Curriculum Platform supports the integration of instruction with assessment to promote learning. With the curriculum platform, school districts and charter schools can easily integrate existing curriculum content, develop new curriculum content, and modify curriculums as needed. Once curriculum information has been entered into the platform, school and classroom level users can quickly access the information in order to plan and implement curriculum, differentiated instruction, and assessment activities.

The Digital Curriculum Platform is comprised of two integrated components: 1) a series of online Instructional Units defining the scope and sequence of instruction and offering a variety of resources to guide instruction; and 2) within each Unit a series of online Instructional Dialogs enabling the development and delivery of instruction and assessment within each unit. A series of Units can form the complete curriculum for a particular subject and grade. Curriculums built on the platform may include multimedia content, technology-enhanced lessons, assignments, assessments, and tools supporting online synchronous and asynchronous communication between students and teachers.

A Galileo Unit contains standards to be addressed, instructional content, resources, and Instructional Dialogs. Click to view larger.

Because the curriculum platform is fully integrated within Galileo K-12 Online, teachers, specialists and administrators have real-time, time-saving access to Galileo Dashboard reports displaying a continuous portrait of student growth and achievement. Moreover, parents and students have access to curriculum through the Galileo K-12 Online Student-Parent Center. The center is comprised of an array of features designed to increase student engagement in the learning process and provide parents with easy access to information on student learning, curriculum and resources.

Contact our friendly and knowledgeable Field Services Coordinators to learn more.

ATI Celebrates Head Start Awareness Month

ATI has been supporting Head Start programs throughout the country since 1986. We celebrate Head Start Awareness in October for the unwavering efforts Head Start has made in assisting over eight million low-income preschool children and their families.* 

Galileo Pre-K Online supports Head Start efforts to prepare children for kindergarten and beyond by providing a complete and fully integrated assessment, curriculum, and reporting system that links assessment, planning, individualization and program progress. Galileo also provides an estimated measure of what a child has learned in the form of a Developmental Level (DL) score. ATI applies procedures based in Item Response Theory (IRT) to information gained through observational assessment to estimate a measure of child learning. This estimate is presented as the Developmental Level (DL) score. The DL score indicates a child's position on a developmental path and provides information about the capabilities the child has learned as well as the capabilities the child is ready to learn. ATI recently released new research briefs presenting child growth findings which can assist Head Start educators with interpreting DL scores:

• Estimated Growth for Children Birth through 5 Years Based on 2014-15 Assessment Data: The change in the DL score over time can be used to evaluate child growth. ATI’s research can be used to estimate child growth for various time periods. This information can be used by early childhood providers to evaluate whether children are demonstrating adequate growth over time. Read the full brief
• Predicted Developmental Level Scores for Children Birth through 5 Years Based on 2014-15 Assessment Data:  ATI conducts annual research that can be used to predict the DL score for children at various ages. Early childhood providers can use the up-to-date information provided by this research to evaluate whether children are progressing appropriately over time for each age-range. Read the full brief

*http://www.neighborhoodhouse.org/national-head-start-month-celebrated-in-october/#sthash.XH4FRooN.dpbs

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.