THE Journal — Special Needs Students
Gov. Schwarzenegger Promises Reprieve to California Homeschoolers
In late February, California's Second District Court of Appeals issued a ruling that effectively banned every form of homeschooling in the state--whether coordinated through a public school district, combined with online schooling, or otherwise administered in a way that does not include full-time, in-person instruction from a credentialed teacher. It was a ruling with widespread implications for every homeschooling parent in the state, and one that is now being challenged on two fronts: by homeschool advocates and by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger himself.
(3/10/2008)
'Foundations' Series Aims To Boost Elementary Reading Comprehension
Education developer Dynamic Literacy has released Foundations, the latest series in its WordBuild Vocabulary Development System. Foundations teaches "morphics," a term the company uses to differentiate its morphological instruction from phonics-based approaches. The system is targeted toward students in grades 3 through 5, though it can also be used in interventions for students in grades 6 and up.
(2/28/2008)
North Dakota To Roll Out Special Ed Management System
The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (NDDPI) has signed on with Maximus for a $1 million state-wide implementation of TIENET, a special education case management system.
(2/22/2008)
ALEKS Debuts Online Math System
Education technology developer ALEKS has debuted a new online math tool called QuickTables. Targeted toward grade 3 and up, the system is designed to provide math practice coupled with individualized assessments for immediate remediation.
(2/12/2008)
Accessible eLearning: School for Deaf Deploys D2L
Washington School for the Deaf in Vancouver, WA is making the move to provide educational services to deaf and hard of hearing students regardless of location. The statewide educational agency has adopted the Desire2Learn learning management system in an effort to provide direct instruction to students from around the state.
(2/6/2008)
Orchard Taps PracticePlanet for Intervention Strategies
Education software developer Siboney Learning Group has updated Orchard, the company's targeted instruction software for math, language arts, and science for K-9. Enhancements to the software include expanded platform support, a variety of design tweaks, and a new technology that ties in the company's PracticePlanet service to help generate data for developing intervention strategies.
(2/1/2008)
NetRTI Monitors Achievement for Struggling Learners
Education technology developer Netchemia earlier this month released netRTI, a response to intervention program targeted at struggling learners and special needs students.
(1/28/2008)
Adaptive Curriculum Launches Math and Science Activities
Sebit this week launched a new online educational resource focused on math and science: Adaptive Curriculum. The resource provides a library of math and science activities aligned to state and national standards. It's on display at the FETC show in Orlando, FL.
(1/24/2008)
FETC Brief: Pearson Expands Online Math Remediation
At the FETC show in Orlando, FL Tuesday, Pearson announced that it's expanded its online math remediation tool, Pearson Perspective, to include video tutorials from Video Math Tutor.
(1/23/2008)
Omtool, eSped Partner for Special Ed Document Management
Technology providers Omtool and eSped have partnered to develop a new document management solution for special education in K-12 schools. eSped is a developer of Web-based solutions for special ed, while Omtool is a document capture and management technology provider. The new solution combines the two technologies to help capture, organize, manage, and distribute documents related to special education cases.
(1/9/2008)
Scientific Learning To Buy Out Soliloquy
Scientific Learning Corp. has announced that it will acquire Soliloquy Learning from JTT Holdings. Both Scientific Learning and Soliloquy provide technology solutions for education. The acquisition will cost SLC about $11 million and is expected to be completed this month. (A definitive agreement to acquire the company was reached in late December.)
(1/3/2008)
Georgia District Adopts Gaming Suite for PreK
The Henry County School District in Georgia has brought educational gaming its its preK and special education students. This semester, the district purchased 21 copies of AT KidSystems' Cosmo's Learning Systems--a combination of hardware and software targeted toward 2- to 8-year-olds.
(12/5/2007)
Aurora U Reaches Out to K-12 with HOSTS Mentoring
Aurora University in Illinois has teamed up with HOSTS Learning to provide intervention programs to local middle school students through the HOSTS Mentoring and Intervention solution. Launched in October, the program will run through May 2008 out of Aurora's Institute for Collaboration resource center.
(12/3/2007)
Cisco Grant To Assist Math Education Development
The MIND Research Institute, a non-profit education research and publishing organization, said this week that it's received a $500,000 cash grant from the Cisco Foundation--this on top of a previously awarded grant of about $500,000 in equipment, bringing the total donation to $1 million. The funds will be used to develop MIND's elementary and middle school math programs and make them available over the Internet.
(11/27/2007)
Texas District Takes Special Ed Management Online
Round Rock Independent School District (RRISD) in Texas is moving management of its special populations to the Web. The district last week signed on with Spectrum K12 School Solutions' Encore system for the move, which will cut roughly in half the number of data entry assistants required to assist with paperwork, moving those assistants into positions where they will be working directly with students, according to RRISD Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Toni Garcia.
(11/26/2007)
NC District Literacy Intervention Program Applies Neuroscience
North Carolina's Anson County School District has deployed Scientific Learning's Fast ForWord To Reading Series reading intervention software as part of its program to increase literacy among students who are at risk readers.
(11/8/2007)
Case Study: Writing with Technology
Practicing writing is typically a slow process. It's time-consuming, and student feedback is often delayed owing to the time it takes teachers to grade each essay for grammar, content, and writing style. In a world of 24/7 advertising, Game Boys and instant messaging, how can teachers motivate middle and high school students to invest their time and energy and actually enjoy practicing writing?
(11/5/2007)
3 Districts Deploy Differentiated Math Tutoring System
Three large school districts in the United States this semester have deployed Apangea Learning's SmartHelp as a part of their math intervention and remediation programs: District of Columbia Public Schools (Washington, DC), Atlanta Public Schools, and Chicago Public Schools.
(10/16/2007)
Read Naturally Adds ELL Curriculum Support
Read Naturally has released a new version of its reading software, Read Naturally Software Edition (SE) Network Plus. The new 2.1 version incorporates support for ELL curricula and also adds new licensing options.
(10/9/2007)
San Diego USD Cogitates on Cognitive Tutor
San Diego Unified School District in California is hoping to bump student performance in math with the help of a research-based multimedia math curriculum called Cognitive Tutor Bridge to Algebra. The district spent $177,000 on licenses to bring the algebra readiness curriculum to students in 11 of its middle schools.
(10/3/2007)
DJI Releases Writing Intervention
Don Johnston Inc. (DJI) has expanded its lineup of Solo literacy tools with the release of Solo Writing Coach, an instructional framework targeting struggling learners in grades 3 through 12. Writing Coach is a component of the Solo Literacy Suite, a technology-based reading and writing scaffolding system.
(10/2/2007)
MIND Games: Institute Releases Algebra Intervention
The MIND Research Institute has released supplemental courseware aimed at improving success rates in Algebra I classes. Dubbed ST Math: Algebra Readiness Supplemental, the new title expands MIND's math offerings into the middle school level, building upon the elementary school-focused, foundational math skills-oriented Algebra Readiness.
(10/1/2007)
Idaho State Ed Board Deploys Reading Intervention
The Idaho State Board of Education will use Reading Prep and Fast ForWord to Reading 1-5 from Scientific Learning's Fast ForWord to Learning Series, a software package designed for reading intervention. The state had already given the software a road test. In a study conducted during the 2005-2006 school year, 282 students from Idaho's Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25 used Fast ForWord software.
(9/26/2007)
Computer Tools Come to Special Education Curricula
AbleNet and SoftTouch have formed a partnership to deliver computer and literacy tools to students with moderate to severe cognitive and physical disabilities. The partnership is designed to build on two of AbleNet's special ed curricula: Star Reporter and MEville to WEville.
(9/5/2007)
PBS To Roll Out PreK Literacy Tools This Fall
PBS Kids is launching two new literacy programs for preschool beginning in early September--Super WHY! and WordWorld--as part of its Ready To Learn initiative for kids aged 2 to 8. The goal of the initiative, aimed especially toward students from low-income families, is to provide the tools young learners will need to acquire reading skills.
(8/31/2007)
