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Vantage Learning and Texas Education Agency Announce Web-Based Diagnostic System to Enhance Students' Science Skills

Posted on: Friday, 28 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

DALLAS, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Today 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 paper delivery. * Immediate scoring and reporting, to help science educators develop and guide instruction accurately and efficiently. * A bank containing thousands of test questions, so educators can create their own assessments, quizzes, and homework assignments. Administrators will also be able to use this item bank to create district or school-wide benchmark exams. * "Real time" updates on student performance by grade and strand, across the 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.

Vantage Learning

CONTACT: Jason Policastro, Assistant Account Executive of Gregory FCA,+1-610-642-8253, Jason@GregoryFCA.com; or Corporate: Harry Barfoot, VicePresident of Sales and Marketing, Vantage Learning, +1-215-579-8390,HBarfoot@Vantage.com

Web site: http://www.vantagelearning.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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