A solution to the No Child Left Behind" mandate. EduCatalyst Launches New Teacher Development Paradigm at Seattles NECC

EduCatalyst appears to be in the right place at the right time, offering tools that promise to help teachers improve student learning just as the federal governments No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation turns up the heat, requiring schools and teachers to be accountable for improving student performance.

(PRWEB) Based on several years to of research by some of the country's leading educators at Penn State and other universities, EduCatalyst is a new company that is changing the way teachers develop as professionals after they leave college and are on the job.

The company has taken a new approach, offering online, tools for educators that help them make good decisions and that make time-consuming tasks more efficient. Their set of anywhere, anytime, at your own pace development tools" has been well received by teachers and administrators alike, and teachers, students, school systems, parents, and the communities in which they live and work are the ultimate beneficiaries.

EduCatalyst appears to be in the right place at the right time, offering tools that promise to help teachers improve student learning just as the federal governments No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation turns up the heat, requiring schools and teachers to be accountable for improving student performance. Based in Quincy, MA, EduCatalyst provides teachers and educational administrators a technology-based decision support system that enhances, improves and tracks the continuous professional development of teachers. The company will launch the EduCatalyst 1.0 program at NECC 2003, June 29th through July 2nd, at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.

The new EduCatalyst 1.0 program is a suite of research-based, Internet-based tools and advisors" that helps teachers and educational administrators identify, explore, select, plan, implement and evaluate new ways to improve student performance.

According to Dr. Kyle Peck, Chief Education Officer of EduCatalyst, What we have developed is a state-of-the-art set of tools that allow a whole new approach to the professional development of teachers. Using our tools, teachers can develop as individuals, based on the best ways they can find to improve student learning in their own classrooms. Our tools help they identify what to work on, collaborate with other teachers, develop an implementation plan, learn what they need to know, and do what they need to do to successfully improve their teaching and their students learning. And our tools help administrators understand and support their progress."

He continued, Our vision is to drastically change the teacher development paradigm What we have been doing simply isnt working. We know that students in our schools should be learning as much as they can, 'in context. In other words, students should be learning in a way that is connected to the real problems they will need to solve as adults. The same is true for our teachers. They should be growing as teachers by solving the very real problems that exist in every classroom. With todays very capable technologies, we can make that happen, managing the growth and development
of each teacher along an individualized path. EduCatalyst provides teachers with a way to plan and execute their own professional development strategy while creating an individualized professional development plan that may be
accessed, tracked and approved by teacher leaders, such as the principal or curriculum coordinator."

Every teachers ultimate goal is to improve student learning. The EduCatalyst system allows teachers and their leaders to build strategies that lead to educational excellence -- strategies to improve student achievement and meet the demanding challenges of the No Child Left Behind Initiative," noted Dr. Peck.

To learn more about EduCatalyst, their products and their role in education technology, visit their website at www.educatalyst.com.

About the NECC
The National Educational Computing Conference 2003 (NECC), the worlds largest educational technology exhibit, is presented by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) in cooperation with the Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE). NECC 2003 will be held June 29-July 2, 2003 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle and is sponsored by Gateway®, NASA and Texas Instruments. For more information about NECC 2003, visit their website at www.neccsite.org.

EduCatalyst
EduCatalyst provides research-based professional development and decision support tools for educators. Offering a suite of scientifically proven computer-based tools and advisors", EduCatalyst offers professional development as an Application Services Provider (ASP). Through decision support and productivity tools for educators and ASP technology in a simple to use format, EduCatalyst provides a web-enabled tool that helps teachers make better decisions, obtain information, structure workable plans, communicate, collaborate, analyze, assess and develop professionally.

EduCatalyst was created to extend and disseminate the work of The AECT Project", a three-year catalyst" project funded by the U.S. Department of Educations Preparing Tomorrows Teacher to Use Technology" (PT3) program. The AECT Project combined the expertise, talents and creativity of contributors from Penn State University, The University of Georgia, Florida State University and Austin Peay State University as well as the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) and the Agency for Instructional Technology (AIT). EduCatalysts tools evolved from a series of research and development projects conducted at Penn State University under the leadership of Kyle Peck, PhD.

EduCatalysts main office is located at 606 Washington Street in Quincy, MA. To learn more about EduCatalyst, visit their website at www.educatalyst.com, email info@educatalyst.com or contact (617) 769-9500.

Visual are available for the asking.

To arrange for a interview at the upcoming NECC, or for a phone briefing with Kyle Peck, a founder of Educatalyst, please CONTACT: Steve Dubin, PR Works, (781) 878-9533, sdubin@prworkzone.com