Under this system, which was placed online in collaboration with Vantage Learning, Edison's students are able to take these monthly tests on the computer, the assessments are scored automatically, and teachers receive the results immediately. By providing detailed measurements of student progress toward achieving academic standards, this cutting edge system will help teachers tailor their instruction to the specific needs of students and will help schools work more strategically toward higher achievement. During the 2000-2001 academic year Edison will administer more than one million of these Benchmarks online. The results are automatically charted for teachers each month so schools can track their students' progress in meeting Edison, state, and national testing standards.
Teachers use the results to adjust their instruction to best meet individual student needs.
We were pleased to work in collaboration with Vantage Learning, the largest provider of online testing in the nation, to place our Benchmark Assessments online,'' said John Chubb, Edison's Chief Education Officer. Now that we can offer Benchmarks online, we are lessening the administrative burden for teachers and increasing the amount of time they have to address the individual academic concerns of each of their students. Edison Schools currently manages 113 public schools with a total enrollment of approximately 57,000 students. Through contracts with local school districts and public charter school boards, Edison assumes educational and operational responsibility for individual schools in return for per-pupil funding that is generally comparable to that spent on other public schools in the area. Over the course of three years of intensive research, Edison's team of leading educators and scholars developed an innovative, research-based curriculum and school design.