GlobalScholar Releases Upgrades to Scantron, Exceed, and Pinnacle
In an announcement at ISTE today, GlobalScholar, a provider of data-driven technology solutions for education, introduced updates for all three of its product brands: Scantron, Exceed, and Pinnacle. In a prepared statement, John Lawler, the company's president, said, "These improvements provide more robust tools that directly support three strategic solutions that are critical to today's K-12 educators: Personalized learning, educator effectiveness, and standards-based education."
New features of the company's Personalized Learning solution include districtwide dashboard analytics to help predict summative, high-stakes test results; automated response to intervention (RTI) e-mails and alerts for real-time personalization; an expanded range of early childhood computer-adaptive assessments for K-2, aligned to Common Core; and new mastery measures of standards, which can be converted to traditional grading. These solutions are intended to help schools meet Absolute Priority 1 for the new Race to the Top funding for districts, and also provide a transparent learning environment so that parents can stay informed of their children's achievements.
GlobalScholar's Educator Effectiveness solution lets administrators move beyond classroom observation to capture a more comprehensive, multi-dimensional picture of an educator's teaching skills. Schools and districts can now factor in data such as attendance, achievement scores, and teaching models. Upgrades include multiple rubrics configurable for different evaluation models and roles; addition of evidence data from external sources such as Value-Added Measurement (VAM) and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP); as well as the ability to capture observations from self, peer, and third-party evaluators.
The company's Standards-based Education framework helps educators work together with their students to address gaps in their knowledge and identify what they need to learn. New release features include the ability to measure mastery by standard and item; new standards-based adaptive assessments for K-2, written by educators and aligned with Common Core; and additional methods for calculating standards-based grades.
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Andrew Barbour is the former executive editor of Campus Technology.