FETC 2010 News
Online Educational Assessment Program Goes Bilingual
Achiever!, the online educational assessment and instruction tool from Brainchild, is now available in Spanish as well as English, the company announced at FETC 2010, being held this week in Orlando, FL.
Educators throughout the country use the program, which is aligned to the educational standards of each state, to assess student performance. Data gleaned from the program can also be shared between teachers, administrators, and parents so that together they can determine the best individualized course of education for each child. Because of its focus on state standards, Achiever! is also used frequently in response to intervention.
"If we hand a teacher a report that tells what each student needs to work on, she might be able to differentiate instruction for one or two students, but an RTI program is about doing this for every student," explained Geeta McMillan, principal of Cassville Elementary School in Sparta, TN. "It is only possible to do this with a total package like Achiever! where the assessment automatically jumps the student into the activities they need."
With the new version of the program, students from Spanish-speaking households who may be learning English as a second language and have not yet mastered the rudiments can now receive the full benefits of the Achiever! program at the same rate as their fellow students who are native English speakers, preventing them from falling behind in a class solely because of language limitations. The version includes the same test questions and answers, tutorials, on-screen animations and text, and audio narrations, all presented in Spanish.
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Scott Aronowitz is a freelance writer based in Las Vegas. He has covered the technology, advertising, and entertainment sectors for seven years. He can be reached here.