Products

The Latest Assessment Tools

8/30/2011 By:

The SchoolLogic Web-based Student Management System includes the TeacherLogic Portal (www.schoollogic.com) which features an online gradebook that lets teachers enter grades, multiple assignments, daily and period attendance, tasks, and course comments by class or student. Educators can calculate final grades using a wide variety of weighting schemes and output a variety of reports and report cards using the powerful reporting services.

PLATO Learning (www.plato.com) has introduced two new assessment solutions: Accucess is an adaptive diagnostic assessment that determines student proficiency and achievement in key subject areas; flexTest is a quiz and test builder that allows teachers to build assessments from scratch to use within a variety of learning applications. Both products now have an improved ability to modify tests.

iParadigms, maker of Turnitin products, has integrated Educational Testing Service’s (ETS) e-rater grammar-checking technology into GradeMark, the paperless grading portion of Turnitin’s plagiarism solution. The integration offers a complete online mark-up tool that provides teachers with instant diagnostic feedback on students’ grammar, usage, mechanics, style, and spelling.

ClassLink ClassMate for Career and Technical Education, Adult Education, Alternative Education, and Special Education organizations, includes NOCTI assessment data, letting users import and analyze student NOCTI scores and create individualized and summary reports. Plus ClassMate also provides the ability to access and analyze student data from both NY and PA Benchmark and Summative Exams.

eInstruction (www.einstruction.com) recently partnered with Riverside, the assessment division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. eInstruction’s CPS systems are now integrated with Riverside’s Edusoft Assessment Management System, which helps schools administer district benchmark and classroom tests.

The Acuity InFormative Assessment, available for high school, emerges directly from the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Features include: accurate measurements of what students know and are able to do in key academic subjects; critical college and career readiness skills; CCSS with new, rigorous, real-world, and interactive assessments; and more. Available for English language arts and mathematics, Grade 9–12.

Lexia Reading Version 8 predicts student performance on grade-level assessments and prescribes the intensity of instruction needed to improve student performance. A new iPhone app also gives teachers access to student performance data.

Apperson (www.appersonedu.com) test scanners scan teacher- made tests right into their DataLink software, which produces a variety of reports to help teachers better understand student comprehension. Apperson’s most recent update to their DataLink software provides the ability to download the state and Common Core standards.

CompassLearning Odyssey 2011 (www.compasslearning.com) adds new math and English language arts curricular enhancements, including hundreds of interactive, Common Core standards- aligned activities and quizzes, along with historically current new content in High School Social Studies.

New this fall for Learning.com’s 21st Ctentury Skills Assessment is the capability to prescribe lessons from EasyTech technology literacy curriculum to meet gaps identified in the assessment. 21st Century Skills Assessment is an authentic, online assessment that provides psychometrically valid data on students’ skills, aligned to the ISTE NETS-S.

The OnCourse (www.oncoursesystems.com) Student Stats Data Analysis Tool is a consolidated data warehouse for all district assessment data, like state test scores, local formative and summative test results, and teacher-administered test scores.

Voyager’s (www.voyagerlearning.com) VocabJourney is an interactive, Web-based reading tool to help students boost their vocabulary and comprehension skills. Originally offered only to students in Voyager’s high school reading intervention program, Passport Reading Journeys III, the newly enhanced version of VocabJourney, is now also available to all levels of Passport Reading Journeys (grades six through nine) as well as students in LANGUAGE!, the company’s literacy intervention program (for grades three through 12).

The Pinnacle Suite (www.globalscholar.com) includes Pinnacle Grade, the Web-based, standards- based grading and assessment management solution. Pinnacle Grade is a platform-independent application that fully integrates with a school’s SIS. The solution includes standards tracking and reporting, grading capabilities, attendance, and more.

ASSESSMENT APPS

By Vicki Windman

• IEP Checklist (Free): A great tool to have at your fingertips when you need to track IEP goals for your students.
• Percentally ($2.99): Many of the IEP goals are looking for percentage benchmarks for an assigned goal. This app allows you to customize the goal for each student and mark progress using percentages. You can export your information to Google Docs so you have a back up record.
• GoDocs ($4.99): This app allows you to sync with your Google Docs, even if you have more than one account. It also allows you to edit on the iPad.
• K12 Timed Reading Practice ($1.99): K12 Timed Reading Practice lets readers in levels K-4 practice fluency by reading short, timed stories.
• Super Duper Data Tracker ($1.99): Monitor your students’ progress by name, group, or goals. Track incorrect and correct responses discreetly and efficiently. • Behavior Tracker Pro (29.99): This app tracks behaviors and automatically graphs them. Supports unlimited number of children and observers.
• Teacher Assistant Pro ($3.99): Keeps track of student actions, behavior, infractions, and achievements in the classroom.
• SMART Response VE: If you use a SMART Board, this tool will allow you gain immediate insight into student understanding.
• PAR Assessment Toolkit (Free): The scoring modules allow for conversion from raw scores to T scores for our most popular assessments.
• Google Docs Administrator Classroom Evaluation Tool template.: Add this to your GoDocs as a template to evaluate teachers.

Vicki Windman is a special education teacher at Clarkstown High School South.

ADDITIONAL ASSESSMENT RESOURCES

• American Education Corporation (www.amered.com)
• Blackboard (www.blackboard.com)
• Carnegie Learning (www.carnegielearning.com)
• COREK12 (http://corek12.com/)
• Curriculum Associates (www.curriculumassociates.com)
• Discovery Education Assessment (www.discoveryeducation.com/products/assessment/)
• Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Imagination Station: (www.istation.com)
• K12 (www.k12.com)
• Kaplan, Reading and Math Empowerment (www.kaplank12.com)
• McGraw-Hill Education (www.mheonline.com)
• MindPlay RAPS (www.mindplay.com)
• Pearson Assessment (www.pearsonassessments.com)
• Peoples Education (www.peopleseducation.com)
• Princeton Review (www.princetonreview.com)
• Promethean (www.prometheanworld.com)
• Recorded Books, Plugged-in to Reading (www.pluggedintoreading.com)
• Schoolnet (www.schoolnet.com)
• Scholastic 180 (www.scholastic.com/read180)
• Scientific Learning, Fast ForWord (www.scilearn.com)
• Renaissance Learning (www.renlearn.com)
• Summit Interactive, GraspMath Interactive Video Tutor (www.evrmath.com)
• Wireless Generation (www.wirelessgeneration.com)