Innovative Tools
Galileo K‑12 Online continues to evolve in response to client needs, changing federal and state requirements, ongoing research in educational assessment and instruction, and advances in technology. The evolution process is guided by the consistent goal of promoting student learning and leads to innovative tools for educational stakeholders including teachers, administrators, students, and parents. The following paragraphs provide a glimpse of recent innovations designed in support of enhancing student and educator capabilities.
Comprehensive Instructional Improvement and Instructional Effectiveness System
The leading comprehensive, standards-based, and research-supported Galileo K-12 Online Instructional Improvement and Instructional Effectiveness System provides a fully integrated array of assessment, instruction, educator effectiveness, and reporting tools at one low cost. Galileo assists educators in establishing instructional goals reflecting local curriculum, assessing goal attainment, forecasting standards mastery on statewide tests, and using assessment information to guide classroom instruction, enrichment, interventions, and professional development.
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Instructional Improvement
The standards- and research-based instructional improvement system (IIS) within Galileo K-12 Online offers comprehensive assessment and instructional tools with state standards and Common Core State Standards built in and ready for use. A key approach to this system is the Instructional Improvement Cycle, which links goal-setting and planning with implementation and evaluation in a continuous iterative cycle. When used in the context of this cycle, Galileo K-12 Online supports the cyclical process of delivering, managing, evaluating, and refining standards-based education for the purpose of elevating student achievement. The first phase of the Instructional Improvement Cycle involves collaborative goal-setting, planning, and start-up activities between the district and ATI in preparation for implementation of Galileo K-12 Online. The second phase is the actual implementation of Galileo K-12 Online and associated district-ATI monitoring and management activities to support district assessment, reporting, instructional, and professional development efforts designed to increase student learning. The third phase is evaluating implementation impact on learning. Within the Instructional Improvement Cycle, the evaluation phase provides the district with critical information to inform planning in the next cycle of implementation including goal-setting and planning of instruction and intervention. Learn more
Instructional Effectiveness
The premise behind instructional effectiveness is that good teaching and effective educational management can enhance student learning. The Instructional Effectiveness System (IES) within Galileo K-12 Online includes educator ratings and also provides reliable and valid measures of student progress in both state-tested and non-state-tested subject areas and a score compiler that differentially weights and automatically combines diverse indicators of education effectiveness into a single educator effectiveness score. The measures of student progress are aligned with Common Core State Standards where applicable (English language arts and mathematics) and to state standards (e.g., science) where applicable. Measures for non-state-tested areas (e.g., music, art, social studies) are addressed through the Community Assessment and Item Banking Initiative. Educator rating scales within the system are aligned to educator effectiveness scales such as the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), Model Core Teaching Standards, the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) Educational Leadership Policy Standards, and individual state department of education standards. The Galileo IES evolved based both on our more than 25 years of experience and on the needs and requests of users.
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Comprehensive Assessment System
Benefit from the full range of options available in ATI’s comprehensive assessment system, including benchmark, formative, screening and placement tests, plus interim and final course examinations, pretests and posttests, early literacy benchmarks, computerized adaptive tests, and instruments documenting instructional effectiveness. With a wide array of assessment types available online and offline, and a wide variety of ways to develop, administer, and use standards-based assessments as part of an effective educational system, Galileo K-12 Online can accommodate all of your assessment needs.
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Common Core State Standards
Common Core State Standards are more than a new set of standards. They promote a fundamentally different view regarding the goals of curriculum and instructional strategies, the nature of assessment, and the relationship between instruction and assessment. In keeping with the Common Core State Standards’ approach to education, ATI has developed new dialogic technology, new assessment technology, and new community initiatives to build and share instructional materials that not only reflect core standards, but also exemplify teaching practices designed to increase student depth of knowledge to promote college and career readiness.
ATI dialogic technology supports common core community initiatives to build and share instructional content reflecting Common Core State Standards’ goals and teaching strategies. ATI online Instructional Dialogs enable continuing synchronous and asynchronous interactions among teachers and students designed to support classroom instruction while expanding instruction beyond classroom walls.
ATI assessment technology offers a number of ways to measure the achievement of complex skills. Items involving analysis and reasoning measure student capabilities and comprehension beyond factual recall. Technology-enhanced items are under-development and will engage students interactively. Assessment can be integrated into the instructional process and thereby expanded to cover student performance occurring over time periods that extend beyond the limited time periods allotted for selected-response tests.
ATI community initiatives are designed to move instruction from a focus on discrete subject mastery to an emphasis on cross-disciplinary curriculum initiatives that encourage students to view situations by employing broad cross-curricular understanding. In-depth analyses of literary, scientific and historical texts and complex mathematical and scientific concepts supplement selected-response coverage of discrete skills. To promote these community initiatives, ATI offers support services for the development and implementation of curriculum, teaching strategies, and assessments consistent with state guidelines during the transition to the common core initiative.
Watch the Integrating Technology and Teaching Strategies to Develop Common Core Curricula webinar video.
Dashboard Technology
Galileo Dashboard technology provides an easily accessible gateway to the simultaneous viewing of high-value, real-time, actionable reports. Your user login information will determine the Dashboard view available when you access Galileo which means that you can see immediately and all in one place the information most relevant to your specific needs. The Dashboard page can be viewed at three levels: A District Level View, a School Level View, and a Staff Level (teacher) View.
The District Level and School Level views provide in a single location technology to manage a complete Instructional Effectiveness System. System tools include Instructional Effectiveness Rating Scales, Rating Results, aggregated measures of student growth, and an Evaluation Score Compiler Summary that differentially weights and automatically combines diverse indicators of education effectiveness into a single educator effectiveness score.
The Staff Level View includes a home page and an Instructional Effectiveness page. The home page provides teachers with a quick view of recent and upcoming events such as tests, assignments, lessons, and more. The Instructional Effectiveness page includes a Performance Tracker assisting teachers to plan both future instruction and reteaching interventions. In addition, the page provides a Teacher Proficiency Profile and an overall evaluation of instructional effectiveness used to plan professional development.
Community Assessment and Item Banking Initiative
It is well recognized by educators that there is an urgent need for valid, reliable, and fair items and assessments for use in evaluating the instructional effectiveness of teachers in areas not tested on the statewide assessment. ATI is answering this need with the ATI Community Assessment and Item Banking Initiative, providing a way for users to develop and to share both assessment items and assessments. As part of the initiative, ATI is assisting in the preparation of educators to develop high-quality items and is providing services related to assessment development and data analysis. Participating districts are being provided access to a continually growing repository of shared, district-written, high-quality items and customized assessments in areas not currently addressed on statewide tests. Learn more
Customizable Rating Scales
Design, administer, and report the results of teacher and principal performance rating scales using the Administrator Dashboard within Galileo K-12 Online. These rating scales are aligned to the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (InTASC) Professional Teaching Standards and the Professional Administrative Standards from the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC). A bank of educator rating scale items aligned to standards and maintained by ATI makes this possible. Teacher performance data from an existing measurement tool collected outside Galileo or existing measurement tools may be uploaded with appropriate permissions into Galileo for administration, data collection, and reporting. Learn more
Evaluation Score Compiler
The Galileo Evaluation Score Compiler enables districts to credibly combine indicators of student achievement with indicators of educator proficiency and with other indicators. In addition, the Compiler makes it possible to differentially weight these indicators to produce a continuous effectiveness score throughout the year and a final educator effectiveness score for a given educator or group of educators. This approach to weighting and compiling generates an overall effectiveness score that is credible and purposeful. The Compiler is capable of bringing diverse sources of information to bear on professional development and instructional decision making as soon as the information becomes available. Learn more
Early Literacy Benchmark Assessment Series
The Early Literacy Benchmark Assessment Series (EL-BAS) consists of computer-presented assessments aligned to Common Core State Standards in grades kindergarten and first. The EL-BAS assesses critical aspects of early literacy as appropriate for each grade level including: print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, vocabulary acquisition and use, and comprehension of text. This school year, three assessments from the Early Literacy Benchmark Assessment Series are available for each grade level. The three assessments are designed to assess the development of early literacy skills throughout the year and cover the standards in a progressively more comprehensive manner. The EL-BAS is consistent with the research-based findings and recommendations from national and state panels (e.g., the National Reading Panel, the National Early Literacy Panel, the Task Force on Reading Assessment established by Arizona HB 2732). Learn more
ASK Technology
Import, schedule, deliver, administer (online or offline), automatically score and report on assessments created outside of Galileo K-12 Online using ASK Technology. ASK Technology is especially useful for administering district end‑of‑chapter, ‑unit or ‑course assessments in higher grade levels. ASK Technology makes it possible to align imported tests to standards, schedule for administration online with optional use of response pads or offline with bubble sheets, and automatically score the results, meaning schools can access and manage all their assessment information, including information for non-state-tested content and grade levels, in one system. Learn more
Computerized Adaptive Testing
Increase measurement precision with Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) - a form of assessment in which administered items are selected based on the ability levels of the students. Initial item selection is typically based on the assumption that the test taker is of average ability; subsequently selected items are based on ability estimates obtained from preceding responses. This approach optimizes precision by increasing the selection of items that are neither too easy nor too difficult.
Instructional Dialogs: Online Interactive Standards-Based Instruction
Galileo K‑12 Online’s Instructional Dialogs provide an online, interactive approach to creating and delivering standards-based instruction. A Dialog is an online instructional exchange between teachers and students designed to promote student mastery of standards. Instructional Dialogs support a dialogic approach to curriculum that integrates assessment into the instructional process in real-time. For example, Instructional Dialogs make it possible to use assessment item banks both to provide practice during instruction and assessment opportunities following instruction to measure learning. Student responses are immediately recorded and scored providing real-time information to guide further instruction. Click here to view a sample Dialog featuring a science lesson about acids and bases.
For students, Instructional Dialogs offer:
- feedback in real-time, which lets students know if they have mastered classroom material
- enriched instruction with images, animation, audio and video files, and Web links directly incorporated into a Dialog
For teachers, Instructional Dialogs offer:
- flexible instructional design: create your own Dialogs or use ATI’s pre‑crafted Dialogs
- easy-to-use review tools to ensure that Dialogs offer students quality instruction
- continuously growing Dialog banks to share within the educational community
K-12 Student-Parent Center
The K-12 Student-Parent Center is a secure area in Galileo K-12 Online where students and parents can log in and access up-to-date information and resources. The interactive page contains information on assessments and assignments, plus provides student performance results for completed assessments. For quick referencing, teacher notes and contact information can also be stored.
Mercury: Wireless, Interactive Assessment and Instruction
Mercury is an application used with Galileo K-12 Online technology that lets students instantly send assessment and Instructional Dialog responses from response pads to the online system. The response system requires a wireless response pad for each student, a receiver, and a classroom computer, all purchased from a hardware vendor. Students give an answer by pressing a button on the remote. The answer is immediately sent to Galileo K-12 Online, so the teacher can see in seconds who answered and what the answer was. Questions can either be projected for all students to view or provided on paper.