Summer School

If you are having summer school this year and will be using Skills Iowa's programs, you need to let your project leader know your ending date. We will be cleaning up the sites over the summer, and we don't want to do that for your school while you are still using the programs for your summer school program.

Have a great summer whether it includes summer school or not!

The End is Near...

The end of the school year that is. Before you go home for the summer, it might be a good idea for you to print out some of the reports that have helped you determine what direction your teaching for the current year needed to go. While the next group that comes to you will be made up of different kids with different needs, it will be interesting to make comparisons on student performance and the success of strategies you have used this year. 

Another good reason for saving the reports is to answer the questions of the teacher who will have your students next year. Data drives the instruction, and knowing how kids ended up this year will be a great starting point for next year's teacher.

We at Skills Iowa thank you for all you have done this year to increase student achievement. You have one of the most important professions in our country. Thanks for all you do!

7th Grade Math Benchmark

We have discovered that there was an error on the final 7th grade math benchmark assessment. 

Question 17 had an incorrect answer identified as the correct answer. This has been corrected. If you have already administered the assessment, you can go into the answer sheet for each student and simply click on the button to score the assessment. You will then get the correct results. If you need assistance with this, contact your project leader.

If you administered the test telling all students to choose "C", those results will be skewed. C will now not be the correct answer. In this case, you could go in and mark every answer sheet with the correct answer, or you could simply ignore the third test's results on that skill.

We apologize for the error. The Princeton Review corrected the mistake as soon as it was brought to their attention.

Adobe Flash Player Version

Skills Iowa makes use of Adobe's Flash Player. Some of the lessons in Skills Tutor will load with older versions of the programs, but the ones created most recently like Language Arts, will not. It isn't easily evident which version of the program you have installed on your computer, so it can take a bit of time to go to Adobe's website and run through the install routine on your computer. Fortunately, Adobe does offer a tool to determine which version of the program you have installed on your computer. Just go to www.adobe.com/shockwave/welcome . Once there, you will click on the About button to see which version of the Flash program you have installed. There is also a Shockwave Player section, but Skills Iowa doesn't use this technology.

If you need any help with this, please contact your project leader.

Spring Math Benchmark

The third math benchmark is ready for you to administer to your kids. To find it, you must log in to Assessment Center and choose the class in which you want to administer the test. Once you are there, click on the Assessments link. By default, the new page will have a search window available for you. Enter the words Skills Iowa and click the search button (note: hitting return or enter will not do the same thing). Your search should result in an assessment named: Skills Iowa Grade X Math Test 3. If the assessment does not show up for you, you may have to check the settings in "Class Details". If you do not have the math level for that class set in the last set of settings on that page, the assessment will not be available. You can add the appropriate math level to the settings, and then save your settings and search again.

Once you have located the assessment, put a check mark in front of it; click on assign, and then choose the options you want on the next page. After clicking Next on that page, you will be given a list of students who have been assigned the assessment. You must click on Save at the bottom of the page, or the assignment will not be given.

This assessment is a good end of  year check up and can be compared to the beginning benchmark assessment and the mid year assessment if you administered them. Let us know if you need help.