Silverback Links with Linkit & Gooru

“We call it an instructional improvement system,” said Jim Lewis. As Blaine, Idaho superintendent, Lewis got fed up with the lousy systems designed for tracking student interventions and progress, so he built his own.  Other districts asked to use his Mileposts tracking software and he realized they were solving a widespread need. He formed Silverback Learning Solutions in 2010 to make it better and share it more broadly.
Last year, Silverback partnered with Gooru, a search engine for learning with open grade level collections of resources. The partnership allowed Silverback teachers to transform resources into playlists and quizzes.
Silverback Learning LogoSilverback announced a partnership this week with Linkit!, a formative assessment shop. With Linkit!’s assessment creation, delivery, and detailed analytics, Silverback teachers can manage instruction, assessment, and personalized learning plans from a single interface.
Partnerships with Linkit! and Gooru have enabled Silverback to offer combined assessment and content search capabilities. Silverback continues to allow teachers to use their student data in Mileposts to identify student needs and creating lessons as playlists of learning materials tied to standards to share with students.
The new Linkit! research-based formative assessment to be added this fall will ensure that parents and students know where they stand in regards to the Common Core and will help set goals for future progression. This new feature will allow schools and districts the ability to create their own assessments without having to buy new systems or provide additional professional development.
The new Linkit! assessments will enable Silverback to link to leading student information systems and gradebooks. Today’s announcement is a small advance in the confusing patchwork of platforms available to schools these days.
To learn more about the new partnership between Silverback Learning Solutions and Linkit! see the press release below.
 


SILVERBACK LEARNING SOLUTIONS PARTNERS WITH LINKIT! TO RAISE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Seamlessly Integrated Combined Technology Solution Of Mileposts™, Gooru and LinkIt!   Empowers Educators

BOISE, Idaho, April 24, 2013 – Silverback Learning Solutions (www.silverbacklearning.com), an educator-founded technology company and developer of MilepostsÔ, a results-driven instructional improvement system installed in schools K-12 nationwide, today announces a partnership with LinkIt! (www.linkit.com), the K-12 education technology, assessment and data-management company.  The agreement follows Silverback Learning Solutions recent partnership with Ednovo, a non-profit education technology start-up that develops Gooru, a search engine for learning.  This new partnership offers powerful longitudinal data reporting on all state and district summative and classroom formative testing through Mileposts, combined with an intuitive user experience to quickly and easily create assessments and manage capabilities linked to standards and deliverable to a wide variety of end-user interfaces through the LinkIt! assessment system.  The combination of these tools (Silverback, Gooru, and LinkIt!) will work seamlessly together through single sign-on via the Silverback Mileposts interface, sparing busy educators the hassles of logging in and out of multiple solutions, while combining the best of breed capabilities into one user experience.
“We learned long ago that any solution meant to have meaningful impact on students requires the voice of educators at its core,” said Dr. Jim Lewis, CEO of Silverback Learning Solutions. We’re so excited that educators can see their feedback coming to life in a combined solution that represents the leading-edge in personalized education, content search, student and teacher assessment, and instructional management capabilities mapped to standards. It is so rewarding to collaborate with our partners to take these technologies and refine them into a user experience in support of a shared mission to improve educational outcomes for every student.”
Silverback Learning Solutions’ instructional improvement system, Mileposts, enables personalized learning environments for students currently in 13 states throughout the U.S.  Mileposts is a cloud-based learning solution designed to erase the achievement gap and raise the level of success for all students, regardless of socio-economic status or learning ability by allowing teachers to easily create personalized learning plans at the point of instruction for all their students, based expressly on each student’s learning needs.
Mileposts combines LinkIt!’s laser-focus of formative and summative assessment, which is easy and flexible for teachers to manage in a classroom while students are assimilating knowledge.  Combined with  Gooru’s education search engine and tools to organize resources into playlists for learning, teachers now have the new “triple play ” for student success. All three companies are cloud-based, built upon industry standards, whose systems and support processes integrate beautifully, offering unrivaled capability and performance without the overhead costs found in large publishing company point solutions.
“Educators working in a spectrum of school environments from states across the nation continue to help us immensely as they inform our path to develop educational assessment solutions. Our partnership with Silverback Learning Solutions succeeds by giving teachers a tightly integrated “ecosystem” of capabilities and resources to help them work as much more efficient and collaborative teams to increase student achievement,” said Joshua Powe, Co-founder and President of LinkIt!. We are driven with singular focus in our specific area of expertise, but we work together seamlessly alongside partners like Silverback Learning Solutions with a shared mission of helping school districts develop personalized learning environments in each classroom.”
About Silverback Learning Solutions
Silverback Learning Solutions empowers educators to drive intentional instruction for greater achievement in all students.  Built in the classroom, Silverback’s Mileposts provides quick and easy access for teachers to build and share customized learning plans for each student, including collaborative Response to Intervention (RtI) management.  For more information visit www.silverbacklearning.com.
About LinkIt!
LinkIt! (www.linkit.com) is an emerging leader in the field of data-driven technology solutions. Our mission is simple: create the most effective, affordable solutions for K-12 schools looking to improve student performance through the use of real-time data. LinkIt! is focused on creating a simple yet comprehensive system for assessment creation, delivery, scoring, and reporting. The core platform consists of an assessment authoring system, a reporting and data warehouse featuring a dashboard-style interface, and sophisticated, intuitive analytical tools for tracking student and teacher performance. The platform offers integrated content modules including a standards-aligned item bank, a benchmark assessment series, and a library of intervention lessons available in both digital and print format. LinkIt! also creates custom reports for schools and districts, such as identifying students-at-risk by achievement level, teacher, grade, and subject, as well as progress-monitoring student performance and teacher growth.  For more information on LinkIt! visit www.LinkIt.com.
 
Media contacts:
Cherie Le Penske
LP Group for Silverback Learning Solutions
[email protected]
(206) 852-8427
Esther Koo
Southard Communications for LinkIt!
[email protected]
(212) 777-2220

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Getting Smart Staff

The Getting Smart Staff believes in learning out loud and always being an advocate for things that we are excited about. As a result, we write a lot. Do you have a story we should cover? Email [email protected]

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