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TECHNOLOGY EXCHANGE
Texas Math Diagnostic System (TMDS)
Provides Online Math Assessment Tool
Yardley, PA, December 17, 2002- The State of Texas, one of the country's foremost educational innovators, has chosen Vantage Learning (www.vantagelearning.com), the world's leading provider of online assessment tools, to provide an estimated 1.5 million middle school students with the latest in online mathematics testing and assessment technology. The Texas Education Agency's new Texas Math Diagnostic System (TMDS), which launched earlier this month, allows educators to build and administer their own math tests online and then have them graded and assessed immediately via the Internet. The new test is based on the Vantage Learning Platform( (VLP) and MathAccess( architecture.
The TMDS is a diagnostic and teaching tool designed for students in grades four through eight. Completely Web-based, it contains a series of pre-developed, grade-specific diagnostic assessments aligned to the math curriculum standards, or TEKS, for middle school instruction. This includes a pool of more than 3,000 assessment questions, both multiple-choice and open-ended, that address every math TEKS objective in middle school grades. Teachers can choose from among a series of pre-configured diagnostic tests, as well as create additional assessments, quizzes, or homework using the question pool. TMDS also includes the ability to create customized reports by student, class, campus, or district aggregations. Not only can teachers administer diagnostic or district-related assessments online, they can also opt to print them out for paper-and-pencil administration. Students' answers can be captured on traditional scannable answer sheets and uploaded onto the Web for flexible score reporting.
"Texas has taken on national prominence as a leader in meaningful educational reform, and a forward-thinking commitment to President Bush's 'Leave No Child Behind' initiative," says Scott Elliot, COO of Vantage Learning. "Their selection of Vantage's math assessment technology serves as a beacon for other states and institutions eager to embrace real change that better prepares our young people for a world increasingly driven by science and technology."
125 school districts across Texas have already signed up to use the TMDS system, including public and charter schools. The technology is deployed specifically at a time when math skills are still developing and remediation can take place, in preparation for college testing and matriculation.
According to Elliot, "More than any other, assessment is the key to evaluating student competency and taking action to ensure that every child meets their potential. The value of technology and the Internet is that they enable teachers to create tests to the precise needs of their students and curricula and then use the technology to quickly and accurately administer, grade, and assess. That's a powerful formula for delivering more targeted instruction for students."
Vantage Learning was chosen competitively from among more than 20 other testing solutions by the Texas Education Agency to implement the TMDS system.
About the Vantage Learning Platform
The Vantage Learning Platform (VLP) is the most widely used online assessment platform in the world. VLP provides test registration, delivery, and reporting services as well as item banking and test creation services. The VLP includes the award-winning IntelliMetric open-ended assessment delivery and scoring engine. Vantage's IntelliMetric uses a rich blend of artificial intelligence and the digitization of human expertise to accurately score and assess a student's competency in a range of subjects. Its inherent flexibilities allow schools to consistently evaluate a student's progress and provide immediate feedback on how students can improve their skills. MY Access!(tm), an online writing instruction and development tool, is built on the Vantage Learning Platform. Results of research conducted in urban schools shows that students using MY Access! as part of their four-week summer school program show a nearly 25% increase in writing performance.
MY Access! is a portfolio-based writing instruction program that allows students and teachers to track student writing over time. Students can write, review and revise their work and receive diagnostic feedback on several important writing dimensions, ranging from organization to mechanics. Teachers can review student work online and provide additional feedback. The MY Access! application relies on Vantage's IntelliMetric automated essay scoring engine to evaluate students' writing.
About Vantage Learning
Vantage Learning, an affiliate of Vantage Laboratories and the leading provider of online assessment and automated essay scoring, developed IntelliMetric(tm) (http://www.vantagelearning.com) to meet the needs of business, education, and government agencies needing a comprehensive Internet-based test authoring, delivery, scoring and reporting platform. IntelliMetric administers and scores responses to open-ended questions over the Internet using advanced artificial intelligence technology. An individual can enter a response to a question posed, submit the response, and receive an immediate score with feedback within seconds.
Vantage provides services in 49 states including Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, Oregon and Texas, and provides services to educational leaders such as The College Board, ACT, Harcourt Educational Measurement, CTB/McGraw Hill and Thomson Learning, and industry giants such as Microsoft, Apple Computer, AOL and Sun Microsystems.
From: Gregory FCA Communications, Inc.
27 West Athens Ave., Ardmore, PA 19003
Contact: Emily DiTomo
(610) 642-8253
Emily@gregoryfca.com