(PRWEB) December 22, 2014
According to Tim Ott, President and CEO of the not-for-profit Successful Practices Network (SPN), “The potential of digital game-based learning (DGBL) technology to improve students learning, engagement, and academic achievement is both increasingly well-evidenced and also compellingly promising.”
That emerging trend is why the federally registered 501(c)(3) SPN, a K-12 educational research and school improvement organization, has been collaborating with LTS Education Systems/Stride Academy in exploring innovative practices in adaptive DGBL.
Stride Academy, a nationally recognized leader in digital instruction and DGBL is, therefore, all the more pleased and honored to announce that the Judson Independent School District in Judson, Texas, has selected and approved LTS Education Systems/Stride Academy as a digital curriculum partner for 2014-2019.
Through the Stride Academy web-based platform, LTS will provide high-quality digital curriculum for K-8 mathematics intervention to 17 elementary schools and 5 middle schools in the district for the length of the five-year partnership. The cloud-based program will be seamless for the district to implement and will be fully compatible on all devices used in the district — including PC, Mac, and tablet devices.
"We are very excited to have Judson ISD as one of our major district partners. Judson has been a leader in educational technology and it's an honor that they selected Stride Academy over numerous other options. We anticipate Judson taking advantage of our new Stride Exchange platform along with all of our DGBL resources. We look forward to Judson challenging our firm to create new programs that engage and motivate their students."
—Brian Shulman, Founder, LTS
The program — specifically aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills (TEKS) and skills evaluated annually on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR exams) — will be accessible to students, teachers, and administrators 24/7 via a custom login portal designed by LTS exclusively for Judson ISD.
Stride Academy will further support:
- JISD teachers with built-in, automated assessments and quiz-building tools along with comprehensive, real-time reporting of student data, including program usage data, diagnosis of individual student skill gaps, and monitoring of student mastery and progress over time.
- JISD students with instructional video tutorials, practice questions on required mathematics skills, and a diagnostic adaptive engine to personalize intervention and skill building for each individual student, including automatic voiceover support to read aloud the questions, reading passages, answer choices, and video tutorials, both in English and in Spanish translation to support the district’s English Language Learners. (On-screen text is also available in Spanish translation for ELL.)
However, because learning should also be fun, Stride Academy engages and encourages students to learn and achieve through a DGBL methodology that rewards student efforts — when they have limited time for highly engaging digital games — with incentives such as badges, online peer competitions, and high-scorer leaderboards.
To ensure fidelity of implementation and progression toward district goals LTS will provide Judson ISD with annual training and professional development to staff and teachers. It will also provide a dedicated Academic Coach employed by LTS for continual follow up and strategic analysis in regular data meetings on-site with district staff.
Please refer to a 2014 DGBL white paper co-published by SPN and LTS at spnetwork.org
About Judson ISD
Judson ISD is a public school district based in San Antonio, Texas, encompassing 55.87 square miles providing services to the cities of Converse, Kirby, and Live Oak. The District also serves portions of the cities of San Antonio, Universal City, Schertz, Selma, and certain areas of unincorporated Bexar County. The District currently has three high schools, four alternative learning programs, five middle schools, and 17 elementary schools with an average daily attendance of about 22,900 students and about 2,900 employees.
About LTS Education Systems/Stride Academy
Brian Shulman founded LTS in 2001 after recognizing the need to reach at-risk youth and teach them basic skills in a new and engaging online format, using motivating video games and peer competitions. LTS’s flagship program, Stride Academy, is LTS’s principal edugaming platform. After more than a decade since its inception, LTS is one of the fastest growing privately held educational software companies in the country, continuously striving to improve the student-teacher experience.
About the Successful Practices Network
SPN is a national not-for-profit organization founded in 2003 through a generous gift by Bill and Bonnie Daggett. SPN is committed to supporting K-12 schools in achieving a culture of rigor, relevance, and relationships for all students. SPN works with schools, districts, regional educational centers, state departments of education, and other partner organizations to identify and share innovative school improvement resources, best practices, data, research, and technical assistance.