September 2001 — Software/Courseware
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Focus on Assessment Tools
In today's fast-paced society nothing is more important than increasing the communication between teachers and parents. And helping to enhance this home communication, GradeQuick 6 from Jackson Software, Inc. includes new enhancements that enable instructors to track skills, mastery levels, state standards and objectives. This detailed information also enhances GradeQuick's Web reports using Edline, a provider of secure K-12 online solutions. With just a click, teachers can easily post Grade- Quick's customizable reports online so families can view secure, detailed up-to-date information from home. The program allows teachers to communicate important, private messages to parents such as their student's grades, attendance, discipline, homework, calendars and more. The detail of the student's work contained in GradeQuick is also accessible from Jackson SiteReporter.
In addition, GradeQuick gives administrators real-time access to current, detailed school-wide data such as eligibility lists, honor rolls, or attendance counts, as well as up-to-the-minute performances of any student. Its new skills assessments also enhance SiteReporter's customizable reports, which are used as Report Cards in many schools. Other schools use them as Interim Progress Reports and then transfer the GradeQuick data to their Student Information System for their official report cards. And because GradeQuick provides seamless integration with most student information systems, grades or attendance from the program can be used by the administrative software as needed.
Curriculum Associates, Inc.'s TEST READY PLUS Read-ing Advanced prepares students for taking tests by reviewing key concepts prior to test day. Designed for grades 9-10 and adult students, PLUS Reading Advanced contains reading selections, including stories, informational articles, p'etry, expository passages, classic tales, speeches and biographies. Advanced skills covered include drawing conclusions; making inferences and completing analogies; distinguishing between fact and opinion; and evaluating literary forms. Students can round out their advanced practice with open-ended tasks, such as writing expository and narrative paragraphs. Each lesson also contains multiple-choice questions that test reading comprehension and critical thinking skills.
Allowing instructors to save time and measure a student's success online, NCS Pearson, Inc.'s eZ.exam software quickly and easily creates and administers online tests with minimal effort, freeing up more time to spend with learners in the classroom. The program requires no programming experience to create a question database, with optional templates available for creating various question types. Question and exam creation is flexible because of the wide range of styles available, including multiple-choice, multiple response, fill-in-the-blank, essay questions, word response, numeric questions, matching/ranking, hot spot, drag-and-drop, matrix and explanation screens. eZ.exam software also allows administrators to organize questions and add from the item bank into topics and subtopics as well as shuffle items for each participant.
