Faced with staff cutbacks and growing school populations, many teachers are finding it increasingly difficult to provide differentiated instruction in their classrooms. In order to meet that challenge, a number of school districts are using technology from Northrop Grumman to offer students an individualized program of study.
Northrop Grumman's Horizon Technology is currently being used in public schools in Fairfax County, Va., Phoenix, Ariz., and Donaldsonville, La., as well as in the School of One pilot program in New York City.
Northrop Grumman has integrated its Horizon Assessment System in the NYC School of One model to deliver custom student assessments for a personalized educational experience. The Web-based system is designed to help teachers and students gather, understand, and use student performance data to tailor lesson plans for each student. The assessment platform is content-neutral with an open architecture, so School of One works with a variety of content providers.
The School of One is in its second year of a pilot program aimed at improving education in NYC public schools. Under the program, students receive an individualized agenda of their day's activities every day. Because the School of One instruction model is customized to individual students' academic needs and learning styles, students participate in different types of instruction, including teacher-led, one-on-one tutoring, and independent learning, as well as work with virtual tutors.
Teachers, meanwhile, are able to use the program to strengthen their own teaching skills and improve the quality of their presentations, such as determining where to put more emphasis or discovering which areas may need further review.
By the end of each school day, teachers receive assessments of each student, which helps teachers understand how each pupil is progressing and aids in the creation of the next day's workload.
Northrop Grumman's Horizon Assessment System is being piloted with NYC's School of One through June 2010.
