Curriculum Associates recently announced a collection of new resources and back-to-school product features to support educators and students during the 2020–2021 school year. These new offerings include a recently launched online toolkit for addressing the challenges of the coming school year, with a whitepaper and multiple videos on how i-Ready can be leveraged to help address these challenges. The company is also releasing a host of new i-Ready product features to address and support unfinished learning from last year. Today, the award-winning i-Ready program serves more than eight million students and approximately 25 percent of all K–8 students in the United States.
“As a company committed to service, our team is focused on doing everything we can to help our educator partners and their students navigate the uncertainty of the new school year,” said Rob Waldron, CEO of Curriculum Associates. “We’ve designed these latest offerings to support successful teaching and address the unique learning needs of each student, whether at school or at home.”
The online toolkit includes the new One Hundred Leaders’ View on the Back to School Challenge whitepaper, which distills insights from district leaders across the country into four essential needs that must be met for success in the year ahead. This resource, developed from months of deep engagement with leaders, outlines these critical needs and the ways in which Curriculum Associates and i-Ready are supporting teachers and leaders in setting students on a path to success this fall.
The toolkit additionally features videos and support materials detailing how i-Ready addresses these unique needs for the school year ahead. These critical supports include providing multi-grade understanding of student needs, establishing goals that are both attainable and ambitious, materials to help balance prerequisite and grade-level learning, and instruction that hits high marks for both quality and ease of use.
Curriculum Associates is launching numerous i-Ready updates prior to the start of the school year to empower educators, offer flexibility, and support unfinished learning. These enhancements, many of which were accelerated based on feedback from educators about their most pressing needs, provide deeper insights for teachers and offer scenario plans and guidance to support learning and assessment, whether it takes place at home or at school. These updates provide significant new reporting and resources that help teachers uncover and address unfinished learning by strategically preparing students for success in grade-level instruction.
A new prerequisite Mathematics report for Grades 1–8 will specifically help diagnose student learning needs and inform unit or lesson planning by identifying essential prerequisite skills to grade-level curriculum, suggesting potential student groupings based on learning needs, recommending resources to be used with those groups, and offering on-the-spot teaching tips to prepare all students for upcoming topics in core instruction. Additional Reading resources for Grades 3–8 will also be available to help teachers scaffold students’ comprehension and empower all learners to participate in grade-level Reading instruction.
New historical i-Ready reporting will also be available to help districts compare students’ instructional performance from last year. Additional new reporting features and functionality will also be added, including the ability to identify student needs with more precision with five overall placement levels on Diagnostic Results. i-Ready will also feature a new online learning platform that extends professional development, new K–8 lessons, Learning Games for middle schoolers, more culturally responsive content, added integrated support for English Learners, and ongoing accessibility improvements.
About i-Ready
i-Ready makes the promise of differentiated instruction a practical reality for K–12 teachers and students. It combines powerful assessments and rich insights with effective and engaging instruction in Reading and Mathematics to address students’ individual needs.
The Diagnostic provides educators with actionable criterion-referenced and normative data to deliver impactful, equitable learning experiences. Teachers administer the Diagnostic at the beginning of the school year to chart a course for their instruction and to personalize i‑Ready instructional paths. A midyear and end-of-year Diagnostic help students and teachers measure growth and have data chats about progress toward their goals. Teacher-led and online instruction continues throughout the year to
About Curriculum Associates
Founded in 1969, Curriculum Associates, LLC designs research-based print and online instructional materials, screens and assessments, and data management tools. The company’s products and outstanding customer service provide teachers and administrators with the resources necessary for teaching diverse student populations and fostering learning for all students.
