Exact Path Awarded ISTE Seal of Alignment for Readiness

It’s safe to say we’re in the midst of a digital education age! What does that mean for schools and districts? While increased access to technology and online learning software opens up a new world of possibilities, it also leads to a lot of questions regarding quality and effectiveness. Fortunately, as educators seek providers and partners they can trust, the highly respected International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has elevated and contributed to the conversation by establishing the ISTE Seal of Alignment program.

As stated on the ISTE website: “The ISTE Seal of Alignment program reviews and recognizes resources for their alignment to the ISTE Standards. Products and services submitted to the program undergo a rigorous review by a panel of standards experts and are evaluated based on the extent to which they build the skills embodied in the standards indicators.”

We’re proud to announce that Exact Path, Edmentum’s K–8 individualized learning program that combines high-quality adaptive assessments and learning paths to promote academic growth, has just earned an ISTE Seal of Alignment for Readiness. ISTE stated in the findings report: “By addressing the ISTE Standards and earning a Seal of Alignment, a solution is shown to consciously, purposefully and meaningfully support best practices for digital age teaching and learning.”

In summarizing the evaluation of this powerful program, the ISTE report noted: “Students enrolled in the Exact Path curriculum will engage in a wide variety of technology-supported activities that will help prepare them for future, deeper opportunities to leverage technology in ways that empower independent student learning.”

More specifically, the recent review evaluated how Exact Path supports the following ISTE Standards for Students:

• Empowered Learner
• Digital Citizen
• Knowledge Constructor
• Innovative Designer
• Computational Thinker
• Creative Communicator
• Global Collaborator

Let’s look at indicators from three of the ISTE standards above to discover how Exact Path stacks up against these rigorous expectations.

Empowered Learner
1.d. Understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose, use and troubleshoot current technologies and are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies.

When technology is used in the learning environment, it creates a unique opportunity for students to practice solving problems independently and building digital and academic skills that can be applied in other settings. The ISTE reviewers found that Exact Path utilized a sophisticated online system with additional built-in learning tools that together help to achieve this goal. 

Innovative Designer
4.a Know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.

This indicator acknowledges that students need to be taught methodologies for problem-solving in the context of real-world scenarios in order to practice transferring and applying knowledge in new and challenging situations. The ISTE reviewers noted that, in Exact Path, students are given practice in using a guided, iterative design process for generating a variety of written responses.

Creative Communicator
6.d. Publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences.

This indicator recognizes that 21st century students must be able to clearly express themselves to successfully convey their ideas to various audiences, including parents, peers, and community members. To that end, the ISTE reviewers uncovered that, in Exact Path, students are challenged to create written responses for various audiences, using both formal and informal tone.

Want to learn more? Visit the ISTE Seal of Alignment program webpage. Also, did you know that Exact Path isn’t the only Edmentum program that has undergone this rigorous third-party review? Edmentum’s virtual school, EdOptions Academy, was recently renewed with its own ISTE Seal of Alignment.