3 Reasons to Use Tech in Your Test Prep Efforts

Spring testing is right around the corner, and for many teachers and students, that means one thing—added stress! But, as the saying goes, the best defense is a good offense. If you’re proactive in your preparation efforts with students, you can all go into test day calm and confident. And with the right tools, designing a rigorous and effective test preparation program for your school or classroom doesn’t have to be a Herculean effort. Online solutions like Edmentum's Study Island can help boost your students' confidence and improve achievement this testing season. Check out these top three reasons to embrace technology as a part of your test prep program!

1. Gain familiarity with online testing environments

One of the greatest benefits to using online tools for standardized test preparation is that they can help students get comfortable with the kind of online environment in which state tests are now being administered. Students need to be familiar with the types of devices that assessments are being delivered on, the technology-enhanced item types that they will encounter, and basic keyboarding and online test navigation skills. Study Island can help students feel comfortable in an online environment, and it features 14 different technology-enhanced item types commonly used on high-stakes exams.

2. Easily implement formative assessment strategies

Formative assessments are one of the most effective methods to seamlessly integrate preparation for state testing into your daily lessons as you move through the various standards. Formative assessments help you quickly evaluate your students’ learning and adjust instruction accordingly, and online tools like Study Island make it easy to build and assign these simple checks for understanding. With the feedback that formative assessments provide, you can tailor preparation efforts for high-stakes summative testing to your student’s needs.

3. Collect data to drive instruction

Online tools make it easy to gather and interpret data on your students’ progress. Study Island features our personal data dashboard, Sensei, which tracks student progress in all assigned activities and presents that data in easy-to-read charts, graphs, and other visuals. Assign formative assessment activities and monitor student outcomes in real time in order to gain insight into what concepts and skills your students have mastered and where additional instruction is needed. With this kind of access to data, you can be sure that you are focusing on the right topics when preparing your students for testing.

Interested in learning more about how Edmentum can support your test preparation program? Check out our FREE Test Prep toolkit, with free resources, guides and downloadables! 

This blog was originally posted January 2016 by Sarah Cornelius and has been updated.