Education Analytics Service Kickboard Offers Free Teacher 'Starter Accounts'
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 12/11/12
An online service that provides education-oriented data analytics is offering free "starter accounts" to teachers. Created by a former high school teacher, Kickboard consolidates data from multiple sources to simplify the job of developing a comprehensive student performance profile. The new starter account allows up to three educators from the same school to use the service at no cost to manage the profiles of up to 150 students each.
The program organizes multiple forms of data, including family communications, student behavior, and academic performance and allows the user to display it on a single screen. The software allows the classroom instructor to break down assignments and assessments by skill or standard to show patterns or performance gaps.
According to the company, the service is already in use by teachers in 200 schools around the country. The software can be deployed in a classroom or across the entire district.
User Melinda Snover, a math teacher who has been working with the program at Stella Worley Middle School in New Orleans, said that Kickboard helps teachers share information across classrooms, pinpoint how to individualize their instruction, and identify success. "We’re celebrating the fact that we are changing. We are collaborating, our classrooms are totally different, our teaching is so targeted and focused, and our mastery is higher."
"After hearing about the experience of their friends and colleagues at Kickboard schools, teachers have been requesting a way to use the platform without having to wait for school-wide adoption," said Jen Medbery, founder and CEO of the company. "We’re launching the Starter Accounts in an effort to give these teachers and other innovative, results-driven educators grounds-up, immediate access to Kickboard so now they too can support data-driven teaching, facilitate collaboration and advance a culture of performance at their school. Teachers need every available tool at their disposal to increase student success and improve outcomes."
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.