LTS Education Systems Announces Advisory Board for Adaptive, Game-Based Learning Platforms
Birmingham, AL (PRWEB) February 20, 2014 -- LTS Education Systems (http://www.ltseducation.com), publisher of adaptive learning technology and game-based learning systems, today announced its new Advisory Board. Charter members are Bill Daggett, Ed.D., Founder and Chairman of the International Center for Leadership in Education; Raymond J. McNulty, Chief Learning Officer at Penn Foster; and Margaret Jorgensen, Ph.D., Chief Academic Officer at K12.
As the education landscape continues to transform at a rapid pace with an upsurge of online learning, the adoption of rigorous new curriculum standards and new technology-based assessments, the Advisory Board members will provide valuable insights on the resulting challenges and opportunities for educators and students. The Advisory Board will serve a critical role in guiding the LTS content development and design teams to support educators and students with innovative, effective technology solutions during these transformational times.
Bill Daggett, Ed.D.
Dr. Bill Daggett is recognized worldwide for his ability to move education systems towards more rigorous and relevant skills and knowledge for all students in Pre-Kindergarten through high school. He has assisted with school improvement initiatives for a number of states and hundreds of school districts. Dr. Daggett has collaborated with the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Governors Association. He also serves on the NASA Education Advisory Board and USA Today Education Advisory Board.
Dr. Daggett has spoken to hundreds of thousands of educators and education stakeholders in all 50 states, inspiring audiences to both embrace what is best about our education system and to make the changes necessary to meet the needs of all students in the 21st century.
“On campuses across the country, I have witnessed first-hand what propels great schools and what other schools lack in terms of strategies to personalize the learning experience and make it rewarding for students,” said Dr. Daggett. “Adaptive learning technologies and game-based incentives are effective methods for engaging students in individualized learning. I look forward to serving as a liaison between LTS Education Systems and America’s schools as the company continues to engineer adaptive technologies to assist all types of learners and engaging games that drive academic achievement.”
Before founding the International Center for Leadership in Education in 1991, Dr. Daggett was a teacher and administrator at the secondary and postsecondary levels and a director with the New York State Education Department, where he spearheaded restructuring initiatives to focus the state's education system on the skills and knowledge students need in a technological, information-based society.
Raymond J. McNulty
Mr. McNulty is the Chief Learning Officer at Penn Foster, a world leader in distance learning, and a Senior Fellow to the International Center for Leadership in Education, having previously served as President. Prior to joining the International Center, he was a senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he worked with leading educators on improving our nation's high schools. Ray is a past president of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and author of It’s Not Us Against Them — Creating the Schools We Need, published in 2009 by the International Center.
An educator since 1973, Ray has been a teacher, vice principal, principal and superintendent. From 2001-03, he served as Vermont's education commissioner. During his tenure, Ray focused on aligning the Department of Education's work on three key issues: early education, educator quality, and secondary school reform.
Ray is a presenter at the state, national, and international levels on the need for school systems to accept the challenges that lie ahead. He is committed to raising performance standards for both teachers and students and to building solid connections between schools and their communities. Ray believes strongly that education systems cannot wait for the children and challenges to arrive at school; rather, schools need to reach out and help forge solutions.
“I believe in the unique approach LTS Education Systems takes to reaching and teaching diverse learners online — in school, at learning centers across the community, and at home,” said McNulty. “Online learning is an outstanding mechanism for motivating today’s students to persist in academics. LTS understands that in order for students to continue in the often difficult work of learning, they need to be motivated by a positive experience that involves personal reward, instant feedback, self-paced learning and technology, which is ever-present in their daily lives.”
Margaret Jorgensen, Ph.D.
Dr. Jorgensen is a leading authority on assessment and curriculum development for K-12 education. A recognized industry innovator, she has developed hundreds of criterion-referenced, standards-based and norm-referenced tests; pioneered innovative item types and assessment formats; designed useful score reports linking assessment information to instruction; and established model standards for the creation of high-quality curriculum and instructional content.
Prior to joining K12 as the Chief Academic Officer in 2013, Jorgensen served as CEO of Measure2Learn, which she founded in 2006 to develop technology products combining assessment and instruction, and to provide psychometric consulting services to companies and educational institutions.
In 2010 through Measure2Learn, she began consulting with LTS Education Systems to spearhead new online assessment and curriculum development efforts. Jorgensen built the foundations for the company’s acquisition and development of rigorous curriculum aligned to Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and individual state standards. She continues to oversee and uphold the highest standards of quality content for LTS learning systems, including the latest additions of U.S. History and Biology End-of-Course Content for high school.
Dr. Jorgensen has overseen the alignment of LTS content to CCSS, Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills, Alabama College- and Career-Ready Standards, and various other state standards. She also currently oversees the integration of technology-enhanced item types into LTS learning systems, to provide students with important practice for the new national assessments.
“In addition to delivering rigorous content and relevant practice for students, LTS does a great job of responding to one critical truth: that is, if students are not engaged, they will not learn. Our philosophy at LTS has been, and will continue to be, that rewarding academic work with engaging games is a key to keeping struggling learners on the right path to academic achievement and growth.”
“In all of our development efforts, we will remain thoughtful about meeting the needs of a substantial population of struggling learners. We understand the critical need to accelerate learning for these students, while at the same time moving the achievement bar higher than ever before to ensure that all students are college and career ready,” Jorgensen explained.
Prior to her current role as CAO at K12, Dr. Jorgensen also served as managing director at Battelle for Kids, a non-profit enterprise focusing on several aspects of educational reform, including teacher effectiveness and strategies to transform low-performing schools. She previously held the role of senior vice president and before that vice president, product development, psychometrics and research for Harcourt Assessment, Inc.; Assistant Vice President for Development, ACT, Inc.; Senior Examiner for the Educational Testing Service; and assistant professor at Emory University.
About LTS Education Systems
LTS Education Systems (LTS) has spent 13 years engineering personalized, motivational and effective educational online programming. From our inception, LTS has recognized the need to reach struggling learners on their present and particular level of ability, teach them foundational skills in a new and engaging online format, and reinforce their work with enjoyable game-based rewards.
LTS educational programming supports educators (and parents) with assessment, informative student progress monitoring and exceptional instructional tools to guide differentiated learning and grow skills naturally, until every single child and youth can reach grade-level proficiency – and move into even greater enrichment – in pursuit of the ultimate goal of college and career readiness.
With ambitious, collaborative development efforts and annual software upgrades, LTS continuously strives to improve the student-teacher experience – especially in this time of transition to rigorous new educational standards and technology-based assessments. For more information, visit http://www.LTSeducation.com or http://www.StrideAcademy.com.
Amy Frith, LTS Education Systems, http://www.LTSeducation.com, +1 (866) 552-9192 Ext: 1011, [email protected]
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