CTB/McGraw-Hill Announces Acuity Assessments Approved for Use in Pennsylvania Educational Assistance Programs

CTB/McGraw-Hill, the leader in K-12 and adult education assessment solutions, today announced that the Pennsylvania Department of Education has approved Acuity™ for use in the State's Educational Assistance Programs. Acuity, a comprehensive interim and formative assessment solution for Grades 3-8, is aligned to the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) test blueprints and format and can be used in all schools.

Acuity enables personalized, data-driven instructional decision making and will provide educators with a strong indication of how all students, including those in Educational Assistance Programs, will perform on the PSSA while there is time to have a positive impact on results. Acuity can also be used in Pennsylvania's Response to Intervention programs to monitor the progress of struggling students.

"Pennsylvania educators have long recognized the essential need for benchmark assessments in their educational programs. Acuity is an effective tool to meet this need, and clearly gauges achievement and monitors students' performance toward academic goals," said Ellen Haley, president of CTB/McGraw-Hill. "Acuity applies the latest research and technology to produce an all-in-one system for enhancing achievement with predictive and diagnostic benchmark assessments, robust reporting tools, and detailed instructional resources linked directly to students' individual results."

A recent white paper published by CTB/McGraw-Hill, "Promoting Student Achievement Using Research-Based Assessment with Formative Benefits," summarizes the results of a body of research that indicates that formative assessment can accelerate learning among all students, including low-performing students, while helping to close achievement gaps and improve overall performance in schools and districts. A copy of the white paper can be downloaded at www.AcuityForSchool.com/our-research/index.php.

Acuity is a classroom-friendly suite of three predictive assessments in Reading and Math and four diagnostic tests with detailed content skills assessments that can be customized to match the scope and sequence of district curriculum content. Pennsylvania schools may also choose Acuity Science, which includes one early indicator and one predictive assessment and can be used for grades 4 and 8. Acuity can be administered online, with paper and pencil, or as a combination of both.

The Acuity suite of assessments reflect the content structure of the PSSA and provide timely feedback to educators to inform and target their instruction to meet each student's strengths and areas requiring improvement. Acuity reports are aligned to the Pennsylvania Anchor Standards framework and include item analysis and Adequate Yearly Progress disaggregation in an easy-to-use point and click interface. Individual reports are available online or in PDF, for each subject, at the student, class, school, and district levels.

  The Acuity system also provides:
  -- Instructional activities linked directly to individual student or class
     test results
  -- Easy-to-use reports that include a distractor analysis report showing
     why students may be choosing incorrect answers so that teachers can
     identify specific actions to improve student achievement
  -- PA-aligned online item bank of more than 20,000 test items and the
     ability to add items to create custom tests

Acuity heralds a new generation of assessment programs that can change the way educators perceive assessment -- as a critical teaching and learning tool. Acuity contains four elements of a comprehensive formative assessment: ongoing measurement opportunities, in-depth reporting, analysis of performance data, and resources for targeted instruction. To help educators take full advantage of Acuity's powerful capabilities and resources, the program offers comprehensive professional development, implementation, and support services. For an interactive product demonstration, go to www.AcuityforSchool.com or call 800.538.9547 to schedule a live product demonstration.

About CTB/McGraw-Hill

As the nation's leading publisher of standardized and standards-based achievement tests for pre-school, elementary, middle, high school, and adult education, CTB/McGraw-Hill LLC offers a broad range of assessments, software and services. CTB/McGraw-Hill LLC is part of the Assessment and Reporting group of McGraw-Hill Education (MHE), a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP). MHE is a leading global provider of instructional, assessment and reference solutions that empower professionals and students of all ages. McGraw-Hill Education has offices in 33 countries and publishes in more than 40 languages. Additional information is available at www.CTB.com.

  Media Inquiries
  Kelley Carpenter
  Director, Communications
  (831) 393-7196
  kelley_carpenter@mcgraw-hill.com

SOURCE: CTB/McGraw-Hill

CONTACT: Kelley Carpenter
Director, Communications
(831) 393-7196
kelley_carpenter@mcgraw-hill.com

Web site: http://www.mheducation.com/
http://www.ctb.com/
http://www.acuityforschool.com/
http://www.acuityforschool.com/our-research/index.php