Brainchild Achiever! Selected as a Top Assessment Product for Helping Students Learn Essential Skills

June 02, 2010 10:48 AM Eastern Daylight Time via BusinessWire

DALLAS--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--The Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) selected Achiever! from Brainchild (www.Brainchild.com) as a finalist in the Distinguished Achievement Awards for K-5 assessment and instructional products. Achiever! assesses standards-based performance in school and then delivers targeted learning tutorials that help students improve their performance on state assessments. (Read more)

Tale of Two Students (from the Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal had this great article on Saturday, May 30, 2010.

...This fall, Ivan will enter the University of Oklahoma, armed with a prestigious scholarship. "I want to be the first Hispanic governor of Oklahoma," declares the clean-cut 18-year-old, standing on the steps of Santa Fe South High School, the charter school in the heart of this city's Hispanic enclave that he says put him on a new path.

Laura, who is 17, rose to senior class president at Capitol Hill High School, a large public school in the same neighborhood. But after scraping together enough credits to graduate, Laura isn't sure where she's headed. She never took college entrance exams. ...more...

Link to the full article: http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748704717004575268752238805736-lMyQjAxMTAwMDAwMTEwNDEyWj.html (Valid for 7 days for non-subscribers)

Online newsrooms in the digital era: PRSA

Online newsrooms in the digital era: PRSA

Great short article about how to enhance an online news room. One key element (similar to how you make Twitter and blogs more visible and useful): be a reference source not an egotist. Yes, you should tell your own story and promote you product/services but also think bigger by adding content from other sources.

School Town Earns 5 Stars from Multimedia & Internet @ Schools

http://www.blogger.com/://www.mmischools.commagazine gave School Town a Five Star review for their May 2010 issue. A summary of the review:

"...Recommendation: School Town offers many resources that can aid in the development of teaching materials that integrate content from textbooks, multimedia, online resources, and much more. This collaborative platform can help educators take advantage of the growing amount of material available in today’s explosively expanding world of knowledge..."

Read the full review here (may require a free log in at MMIS to read the full review)

New Virtual High School Opens at Horizon Charter School for Students in Sacramento Region

ROSEVILLE, Calif. — April 28, 2010 —Teens in Placer, El Dorado, Sacramento, Sutter, Nevada, and Yuba counties looking for a cyber school now have a new option from Horizon Charter School (www.HorizonCharterSchool.org). Horizon is opening a new Virtual High School for the 2010/11 school year and will hold an informational meeting about the program for prospective students on Tuesday, May 4.

(more)

Individualizing Instruction with Technology (from District Administration Magazine)

Don Tylinski inherited a challenge when he became superintendent of the Seneca Valley (Pa.) School District in 2004. The 7,363-student K12 district located 30 miles north of Pittsburgh was under strain because of the arrival of large new industries in the area, including a new facility of global nuclear power plant builder Westinghouse. “The growth in student population had everyone in the district scrambling. We lost consistency in the curriculum,” says Tylinski.

(more)

TMCnet article: Brainchild Products Aid Educators and Students Alike

Education Technology News: Brainchild Products Aid Educators and Students Alike
By Mini Swamy, TMCnet Contributor

Brainchild was founded in 1992 when it created the first handheld tutor for students, the PLS-1000. In 1999, Brainchild's online summative assessment for state standards was introduced.

Since then, Brainchild has been constantly innovating, making multimedia education more interesting for students.Since then, it has come a long way.

Brainchild’s TAKS Achiever! online assessment program and Study Buddy handheld tutors have been approved by the Texas Education Agency Multi-regional Purchasing Cooperative Awards Committee for use in schools in Texas regions 9, 11, 14 and 15,