Pasco County Florida School District Selects CORE K12 to Provide Formative and Web-Based Assessment Platforms

JERSEY CITY, N.J., Aug. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- CORE K12, an international education company dedicated to providing useful, practical technology solutions to K-12 educators, has been awarded the formative and Web-based assessment contract for the District School Board of Pasco County (DSBPC) Florida. CORE K12 will provide DSBPC with a formative and Web-based assessment platform and custom assessments for the 2010-2011 academic year. CORE K12 will also deliver a combination of remote and on-site support and professional development to ensure successful implementation.

Under terms of the agreement, DSBPC districts and schools will receive licenses to CORE K12's online Assessment Center® V3. This Web-based platform allows for the hybrid administration of formative assessments in a variety of test models, including online, responder/clicker, and/or paper/pencil/scan. Online test creation will be available to teachers and administrators using CORE K12's bank of more than 200,000 unique math, science, and reading items. In addition, DSBPC educators will have access to the district's bank of self-authored items through the Assessment Center programs. Reports resulting from the student assessments will inform students, parents, teachers and administrators on each student's progress toward Next Generation Sunshine State Standards ("NGSSS").

"Our goal is to develop, design and deliver tests that are truly meaningful to our teachers and students at an affordable cost," explains Peggy Jones, DSBPC Director of Research and Evaluation. "Our experience and research has shown that the CORE K12 Assessment Center program contains high quality items which are well matched to NGSSS benchmarks. We worked hand-in-hand with CORE K12 to develop the critical custom assessments we needed. We believe this combination of outstanding items and customized assessments will help us deliver positive results across our district schools."

In addition to Assessment Center, CORE K12 has licensed 51 custom benchmark assessments in science for grades 2-8 and 11, and for math in grades 2-10, as a component of the agreement. These custom assessments are comprised of three parallel benchmark assessments (tests with the same blueprint), which will be administered at each grade level during three testing windows in the 2010-2011 school year. The benchmark assessments were blueprinted in partnership with the district, so that each test addresses the most critical NGSSS benchmarks with 3 to 4 items per benchmark. Cognitive complexity/depth of knowledge ratings for items has been specified with the goal that assessment results will inform instruction and assist the district and school to measure individual student growth throughout the year. The ultimate goal is to provide actionable data that allows teacher and student to focus student learning, thereby maximizing opportunities for improvement.

Kevin Howell, president of CORE K12 adds, "Pasco County School District is dedicated to improving the lives of the students in their district by integrating state-of-the-art technology applications with their high teaching standards. We are looking forward to supporting this forward-thinking district by delivering the highest-quality, easiest-to-use formative assessment programs available on the market today, as we have with Assessment Center V3."

About CORE K12  (www.corek12.com) –

CORE K12 Education (CORE K12) is a division of CORE Education and Consulting Services, based in the United States. CORE K12 delivers highly customized solutions to meet the specific needs of State and Local Education Agencies (SEAs/LEAs) and school districts. Our unique and innovative products and services include state-of-the-art, technology- based formative assessment systems, innovative intervention curricula, engaging Web-based training, highly effective professional development seminars, and customized content and assessment development. All the company's programs and services deliver valuable, useful tools for educators from the classroom level through district and/or state level administrators.

CORE K12 currently works with more than 2.5 million students in schools, districts and states across the country, including the Los Angeles Unified School District, Palm Beach County Public Schools, Orange County Public Schools, the Texas Education Agency, and the Virginia Department of Education. Learn more about CORE K12 at www.corek12.com. Press contact for CORE K12 is Peggy Fernau at 405-258-7328 or [email protected].

About the District School Board of Pasco County Florida –

Please visit www.pasco.k12.fl.us.

SOURCE CORE K12