September 2001 — Software/Courseware

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Focus on Assessment Tools


Assessment Tools Contact Information

STAR Early Literacy
Renaissance Learning, Inc.
Wisconsin Rapids, WI
(800) 338-4204
www.renlearn.com

GradeQuick 6
Jackson Software, Inc.
Glenc'e, IL
(800) 850-1777
www.jacksoncorp.com

TEST READY PLUS Reading Advanced
Curriculum Associates, Inc.
North Billerica, MA
(800) 225-0248
www.curriculumassociates.com

eZ.exam
NCS Pearson, Inc.
Minneapolis, MN
(800) 447-3269
www.ncspearson.com

TerraNova, The Second Edition
CTB/McGraw-Hill
Monterey, CA
(800) 538-9547
www.ctb.com

eTeacher3
Media-X Systems, Inc.
Ottawa, Ontario
(877) 722-9990
www.media-x.com

Classroom Wizard
Scantron Corp.
Tustin, CA
(800) 722-6876
www.scantron.comIt didn't take long, but technology has consumed education. It's hard to imagine a classroom today without a computer or a student that d'esn't have Internet access at home. These changes in education have created exciting, new assessment tools for students and educators to work with that benefit everyone. These tools are making teaching simpler and more rewarding for instructors, because they can now concentrate more on their students' education and not on creating documents. This month's Focus On represents only a handful of the assessment tools that exist for the different areas of education to make the lives of students and educators easier.

Teachers can now assess the reading readiness skills of pre-kindergarten through third-grade students

with Renaissance Learning, Inc.'s STAR Early Literacy. This quick and simple computerized assessment tool is a computer-adaptive assessment and database that helps educators identify a student's command of phonemic awareness, phonics, general readiness, graphophonemic knowledge, comprehension, structural analysis and vocabulary skills in approximately 10 minutes. STAR Early Literacy requires minimal tea-cher assistance while a student takes the 25-question assessment. Each test item consists of a combination of audio instructions; on-screen prompts of either text or graphics; and three answer choices containing pictures, letters, words or sentences. To reduce frustration, the questions continually adjust in difficulty based on the student's previous answer. Students also go through a brief mouse-training program and practice test before they begin the actual assessment to ensure their comfort with the program. The comprehensive package is designed to accelerate learning and student achievement in reading, math and writing.

Enter the Greenlight Essay Contest

Students: Tell us how your school can use technology to protect the environment. Win a 30-seat computer lab! Sponsored by PC Mall Gov, HP, InFocus and T.H.E. Journal
www.pcmallgov.com/
greenlightcontest