Last week Discovery Education partnered with East Aurora School District in Illinois to host the first ever Assessment focused Day of Discovery.  This exciting and interactive day of professional development highlighted creative ways to meet students’ needs through on-going assessments and targeted instruction.  The event attracted over 100 educators with diverse backgrounds from the greater Chicago area to participate in the professional development sessions.

Donna Neblett kicked off the day with her keynote entitled “Roadmap for Effective Instruction”.  The message was clear and relevant to all involved as Donna compared the need to use formative assessment data to drive instruction with the need to use a GPS system to find your way to a destination.  “We start with the end in mind” (referencing statewide standardized testing), Donna exclaimed as she depicted the same way a driver would plug in the final destination into the GPS.  As Donna walked participants through the various aspects of Discovery’s balanced assessment solution, attendees awakened to the possibilities of using assessment data to save time and effort throughout their instructional day in the same way a GPS gives turn-by-turn directions to save time without getting lost.

Participants had their choice of sessions including developing a better understanding of benchmark reporting features, evaluating the RTI Progress Monitoring tool and how the entire DEA solution can be implemented within an RTI system, building an understanding of Progress Zone and other digital “Checking for Understanding” tools, and seeing how these tools can be implemented and complemented with digital media in a 21^st century classroom.

The results are in, participant feedback has been provided, and the final tally marks this day up as one of huge success!  Educators left the day having a better understanding of formative assessment, having built a common language around assessment, and understanding how to utilize the variety of assessment tools that Discovery Education has to offer.

As Mary Carr exclaimed, “I look forward to future professional development with Discovery Education.  WOW!”