Press Release - March 14, 2005
Florida Teachers Invest Bonus Money to Provide Students with Cutting Edge Technology
Lake Weir Middle School faculty purchases Vantage Learning's MY Access! to help students meet higher writing standards under Florida Writes!
Ocala, FL, March 14, 2005 - Teachers in Florida demonstrated a new meaning of dedication at Lake Weir Middle School in Marion County, Fla. when they pooled together their bonus money to invest it back into their students' education by purchasing Vantage Learning's MY Access!™, an award-winning, web-based writing assessment and instructional tool that improves students writing proficiency.The efforts of Lake Weir staff are in direct response to the challenge of achieving higher test scores under the state-wide Florida Writes! initiative. Implemented in 1990 to measure the ability of students to write responses on a designated topic within a set testing period, this year the state increased the mandated passing score on the Florida Writes! exam from a 3 to a 3.5 on a 6-point scale. Although Lake Weir has an A+ rating due to its outstanding performance on previous exams, the school's faculty wants to ensure that their students are prepared to face an even tougher challenge now that Florida has raised the bar on student writing requirements. Determined to assist their pupils achieve this goal, Lake Weir's teachers decided to purchase Vantage's MY Access! writing program using their own money.
"These teachers are so dedicated to improving their students' writing skills that they've spent their own hard-earned income to do it," said Harry Barfoot, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "The challenge faced by teachers throughout Florida with the increased passing score requirements on the Florida Writes! exam is truly compelling. Vantage Learning is honored that Lake Weir selected MY Access! to help them meet this challenge."
MY Access! allows students to practice and revise their writing using the online interface, while the program's award-winning automated essay scoring technology, IntelliMetric®, provides immediate feedback to students on their strengths and weaknesses in areas such as focus, organization, content development, style and mechanics. Schools throughout the country that use MY Access! have seen dramatic gains in writing performance and improvement on statewide assessments. Additionally, teachers who use the program have noticed a boost in student confidence and an increased enthusiasm towards subject matter, a situation that teachers in Lake Weir have already encountered.
"This is the best writing tool I've seen in over 22 years of teaching," says Lani Beechen, an eighth grade Language Arts teacher at Lake Weir. "The unique format allows students to feel as if they are not alone in the task of writing. Students who were having trouble writing short sentences are now producing mutiple paragraph, long-form essays".
Lake Weir Middle School students recently took the updated Florida Writes! test, which was given in February, and the faculty is confident they will see significant improvements in test scores as a result of the MY Access! program. "I'm anticipating great results," says Principal Walt Miller. "And if we see the increase in the school's overall scores that we expect, we will find a way to pay for MY Access! again next year."
Lake Weir is already making plans to secure Vantage Learning's MY Access! for students next semester. While other schools are involved in fund raising activities such as bake sales or candy drives to purchase student uniforms, the faculty at Lake Weir is sponsoring a golf tournament in order to raise funds to improve the writing proficiency of their students with My Access!.
About MY Access!
MY Access! is a web-based assessment and diagnostic writing environment that scores student essays instantly and provides individualized instruction that engages and motivates students to improve their writing proficiency. The robust online reporting feature provides up-to-the-minute student performance data, enabling teachers to make timely, data-driven decisions for successful differentiated instruction. MY Access! analyzes more than 300 semantic, syntactic and discourse characteristics and provides a holistic score as well as domain scores for five major areas: focus and meaning, organization, content and development, language use and style, and mechanics and conventions.
About Vantage Learning
Vantage Learning (www.VantageLearning.com), an affiliate of Vantage Laboratories and the leading provider of online assessment and automated essay scoring, developed IntelliMetric® to meet the needs of business, education, and government agencies needing a comprehensive Internet-based test authoring, delivery, scoring and reporting platform. IntelliMetric administers and scores responses to open-ended questions over the Internet using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology. An individual can enter a response to a question posed, submit the response, and receive an immediate score with feedback within seconds.
Most recently, Vantage Learning's MY Access! won the 2004 Award of Excellence from Technology and Learning Magazine, and Eduventures selected Vantage Learning as one of the eight most innovative educational technology companies. In addition, MY Access! was included in Technology and Learning Magazine's Top 10 Smart Technologies for Schools in 2002, and is a Codie Awards finalist three years in a row. Vantage Learning provides services in all 50 states including Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, Oregon, and Texas and provides services to educational leaders such as The College Board, ACT, Harcourt Assessment, Inc., CTB/McGraw Hill and Thomson Learning, and industry giants such as Microsoft, Apple Computer, AOL, and Sun Microsystems.