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Vantage Learning and Texas Education Agency Announce Web-Based Diagnostic System to Enhance Students' Science Skills
30 October 2005Today Vantage Learning, the world's ;leading provider of online assessment tools, announced that the Texas ;Education Agency (TEA) has selected Vantage to develop the Texas Science ;Diagnostic System, a Web-based tool designed to increase student proficiency ;in science. The Texas Science Diagnostic System (TSDS) is part of the TEA's ;Texas Science Initiative, and will be available to all Texas educators through ;the TEA in Spring 2006. The announcement was made today at a private briefing ;during the Texas Association of School Boards/Texas Association of School ;Administrators (TASB/TASA) conference being held in Dallas, Texas. A companion to the popular Texas Mathematics Diagnostic System, also ;created by Vantage Learning for the TEA, the new science component will ;provide educators a tool for individualized science instruction that meets ;specific student needs and decreases achievement gaps. TSDS will be tailored ;for use in grades 4-5 at the elementary level, grades 6-8 at the middle school ;level, and the Integrated Physics and Chemistry (IPC) and Biology courses at ;the high school level. Designed as a flexible and user-friendly diagnostic ;instrument, TSDS will be intrinsically linked to the required Texas Essential ;Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) measured on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and ;Skills (TAKS) tests. Educators will use TSDS to more accurately determine the level of student ;science knowledge at the beginning of the instructional year and then tailor ;and periodically evaluate instruction thereafter. The new program will include ;several exciting features, such as: ; * A series of preconfigured diagnostic tests for online or pape ;elivery. ; * Immediate scoring and reporting, to help science educators develop an ;uide instruction accurately and efficiently. ; * A bank containing thousands of test questions, so educators can creat ;heir own assessments, quizzes, and homework assignments.Administrators will also be able to use this item bank to creat ;istrict or school-wide benchmark exams. ; * "Real time" updates on student performance by grade and strand, acros ;he entire state, within each region, each district, and each school. ; In addition, for schools with limited computer and Internet access, ;students will be able to take a paper and pencil test and then use the ;electronic bubble sheet to "click" their answers directly into the program. ;Teachers with access to scanning technology will have the ability to scan ;penciled-in answer sheets directly into the system for reporting and tracking ;purposes. "A tool as comprehensive and flexible as TSDS that assesses students' ;knowledge and skills in science provides educators an unprecedented profile of ;student performance," say Chris Comer, the Director of Science Curriculum for ;the TEA. "Armed with these profiles, local and district educators can ;determine gaps in teaching and learning in science, and effectively intervene ;to strengthen their instructional programs, ultimately ensuring student ;success, both academically and beyond." Harry Barfoot, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Vantage Learning, ;agrees. "Science is an important cornerstone of our students' education, but ;studies show that students in the United States are falling behind other ;nations in acquiring this vital body of knowledge," he says. "We applaud the ;TEA for its vision and leadership in addressing this achievement gap, and ;taking concrete steps to increase the academic performance of students in ;science." ; About Vantage Learning Vantage Learning (http://www.VantageLearning.com), an affiliate of Vantage ;Laboratories and the leading provider of online assessment and automated essay ;scoring, developed the Texas Mathematics Diagnostic System (TMDS) for the ;Texas Education Agency in order to provide a system educators could use for ;remediation and acceleration of students based on math benchmark assessments ;given during the school year. Vantage Learning also teamed with the Region 10 ;Education Service Center of the Texas Education Agency to create WebCCAT (Web- ;Based Comprehensive Curriculum Assessment Tool), which provides Texas ;educators with a repository of 28,500 questions mapped to the TEKS that can be ;used to create online or offline (paper) assessments of student ability in the ;areas of language arts, math, science and social studies for grades 3-11. In order to meet the needs of business, education, and government agencies ;needing a comprehensive Internet-based test authoring, delivery, scoring, and ;reporting platform, Vantage Learning developed IntelliMetric(TM), which ;administers and scores responses to open-ended questions over the Internet ;using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology. An individual can ;enter a response to a question posed, submit the response, and receive an ;immediate score with feedback within seconds. Vantage Learning provides ;services in all 50 states including Texas, Mississippi, Virginia and Oregon ;and provides services to educational leaders such as The College Board, ACT, ;Harcourt Assessment, Inc., CTB/McGraw Hill and Thomson Learning. ; ; ;
Source: PR Newswire
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