CTB/McGraw-Hill Announces Enhancements for Acuity Formative Assessment Solution

CTB/McGraw-Hill, the leader in K-12 and adult education assessment solutions, today announced the release of item authoring capabilities and other enhancements for Acuity™, its comprehensive interim and formative assessment solution for grades 3-8. The item authoring enhancement allows greater customization of Acuity assessments by enabling educators to develop their own test items aligned to their state standards.

Item authoring provides flexible options for creating and delivering assessments. Once individual assessment items are created and approved by a school district, they are placed into a designated Acuity item bank that will allow for the creation and sharing of customized assessments within the district. Professional development assistance is also available to support Acuity users in utilizing the item authoring tool to create high quality items.

"Teachers administer formative assessments to measure their students' understanding of key educational concepts. This enhancement allows educators to use their own expertise to develop questions for their assessments, tracking student progress toward academic goals while ensuring that assessments are aligned to the state standards," said Ellen Haley, president of CTB/McGraw-Hill.

Other enhancements to Acuity include a time-saving capability that automatically assigns Acuity's instructional resources to students based on their performance on assessments. In addition, free downloadable image scanning software is available for Acuity. The new vCapture Express® software eliminates the need to purchase additional third-party software when using Twain compliant image scanners with Acuity.

Acuity is a classroom-friendly suite of pre-built, state aligned predictive and diagnostic assessments in Reading and Math, and a large item bank for creating customized assessments. Districts may also choose Acuity Science, which includes early indicator and predictive assessments as well as an item bank. Additionally, Acuity Algebra is available as a comprehensive series of placement and formative assessments for grades 6-12. Acuity can be administered online, with paper and pencil, or as a combination of both formats.

Acuity heralds a new generation of comprehensive 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.

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SOURCE: CTB/McGraw-Hill

CONTACT: Kelley Carpenter
Director, Communications
+1-831-393-7196
kelley_carpenter@mcgraw-hill.com

Web site: http://www.acuityforschool.com/
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