Assessments Get Personal Touch with Academic Benchmarks: LearningStation
As a technology company serving the K-12 education market for over 13 years, LearningStation strives to be the market leader in formative assessment technology solutions for school systems nationwide. LearningStation brings efficient and cost effective solutions to schoolsystems by integrating its application development expertise with assessment tools that educators seek. By partnering with Academic Benchmarks full-service alignment option, LearningStation was able to assure client school districts accurate alignments to academic standards across multiple states. Leaders at LearningStation characterize AB’s contribution as a “hand-picked” service.
Client Snapshot
LearningStation provides customized e-learning tools for K-12 classrooms as well as a test- building application to measure student achievement. LS Test Builder is a standards-aligned formative assessment and integrated instruction tool with over 10,000 test items now correlating to the academic standards of 31 states in the core content areas of language arts, math, science and social studies for grades 3 through high school.
Challenge
LearningStation’s assessment tool originally correlated to the Kansas academic standards and was initially developed as an in-classroom, teacher tool. To launch nationwide, LearningStation’s bank of test items needed to correlate to multiple states’ academic standards. Performing this upgrade was outside of the company’s core competencies and would have been cost prohibitive and too time-consuming to accomplish internally. Additionally, LearningStation wanted to expand their offering to a broader base as a district- and state-level formative assessment solution.
The AB Solution
LearningStation looked to Academic Benchmarks’ unique standards identification system and leveraged AB’s expertise in standards data collection and management of its alignment process. A quick and cost-effective “automatic” process allowed LearningStation to align their test items with the academic standards across multiple states.
“We looked to AB to help us manage, not just alignment services, but also
the standards documents that were being released by the states.”
the standards documents that were being released by the states.”
Action
By leveraging the data capabilities of Academic Benchmarks, LearningStation also moved its application from a classroom teacher tool to a more powerful standards-aligned assessment tool that can be applied district and statewide with assured accuracy. Academic Benchmarks ability to correlate items to standards using smart technology and the refinement of a “personal touch,” ensures that LearningStation meets the high expectations of a district’s administration.
“AB’s strength is consistency, efficiency, and accuracy – in taking various versions of standards and converting the data to a tech-enabled format.”
Results
LearningStation is able to consistently and accurately maintain academic curriculum standards and properly aligned assessment items for customer use. School districts praise the LS Test Builder for providing timely feedback on school and district-wide performance that adheres to standards. Educators can quickly create, deliver and assess online standards-defined tests that immediately assess individual student and classroom-wide learning needs.
Academic Benchmarks • www.academicbenchmarks.com
8805 Governor's Hill Drive, Suite 200 • Cincinnati, OH 45249 • 513.898.0534
