Hot on the heels of New Hampshire’s rollout of PACE, Novare Edu proves it’s on the right track.
Palo Alto, CA (PRWEB) March 12, 2015 -- Being in the right place at the right time is crucial to success and Novare’s official launch for Fall of 2015 couldn’t be better timed. With the recent news of New Hampshire’s rollout of PACE (Performance Assessment for Competency Education), Novare is perfectly positioned to address the immediate needs of states and school districts looking to make a change. Novare is an assessment platform and was built hand-in-hand with teachers to support different ways of learning, from a PACE driven competency based model to the Common Core State Standards. The platform allows educators to understand and meet students where they are, and to consistently evaluate their programs to fill necessary gaps.
Novare has successfully been piloted in schools across the country who are rethinking standardization or opting for a way to assess students comprehensively. “Whether you’ve adopted Common Core or not, we believe in capturing and organizing student experiences thereby providing conscientious feedback to promote learning and thinking.” Molly Anderson, CEO, Educator and Novare visionary explains, “Ultimately we support managing a process. And the common thread for these new ways of learning to focus on following a process, a project, or even tracking progress over time.”
Collins-Maxwell Iowa District Superintendent, Jason Ellingson, has jumped on board in using Novare to support what he calls ‘community and communications’. Ellingson explains, “the goal for education is unlocking the potential of every learner to truly learn at their individual pace and follow their own pathway.” Ellingson, a thought leader in Competency Based Education, has a clear goal for his district, “Collins-Maxwell is all about relationships and knowing students. It’s important to identify struggles to provide learning opportunities that can meet students’ needs in order to stretch their potential and that honors each individual student in preparation for their future.” And this type of insightful analysis requires different tools that a standardized test cannot offer.
It is evident that the problem is not the desire to implement changes but rather the execution of it. “School districts and teachers alike have expressed interest in adopting these promising and innovative models, like competency based learning or design thinking, but seeing how deep the demands on the educators are, proves to be overwhelming,” says Marcy Barton, Design Thinking Expert and Stanford University Design School Speaker, “and that’s where Novare’s platform becomes relevant.” Barton has seen the results of using this approach at her CreekSide Learning Lab. “Similar to competency based learning, design thinking is a process that moves learners through defining a challenge and iterating multiple solutions. Novare’s platform can capture this ongoing, dynamic interplay between the learner and the product/outcome.”
Although the true test is usability and whether another technology tool will help or hinder teachers, but so far, Novare’s program has been met with positive reviews. Sarah Griffiths, a 1st and 2nd grade teacher from California proclaims “Novare’s program was designed with teachers for teachers and gives us the 21st Century tools we've been asking for.” Griffiths goes on to explain that “Novare provides essential data, insightful reports and innovative communication tools, to reflect on the child as a whole.” Following this success, Novare is now slated to onboard new schools to prepare for the 2015 academic year.
About: Since 2013 Novare has been focused on developing solutions that empower educators to assess the growth and development of the whole child on a learning continuum unique to each individual.
Terra Casteleyn, Novare Edu, http://www.novareedu.com, +1 4085696372, [email protected]
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