April 12, 2013
Dr. Jim Lewis, CEO of Silverback Learning Solutions, Inc., wanted to create an education technology program that centers on the success of educators and provides a clear picture of a student body. To help educators perform at their highest and most well-informed levels, Lewis began his extensive work on Mileposts.
Collaboratively developed between educators and software engineers and implemented over a five-year period, Mileposts is a cloud-based instructional improvement system – in plain English, a way to measure your students’ progress and intervene when necessary. It brings a higher level of technology to classrooms where it has long been absent.
“Many districts don’t even have technical assets, like laptops, on hand,” explains CFO Amy Bailey. “This makes Mileposts that much more important.”
With Mileposts, teachers can efficiently and accurately assess various student data sets – like math skills, language use, and reading – at state, district, and classroom levels. The Mileposts team recognizes the importance of giving teachers a chance to collaborate with each other on planning, intervention, and instructional cues linked to standards.
“From our standpoint, you have to start with the teacher,” says Bailey. “You have to get them involved on all levels because, at the end of the day, the teacher is one of the most important educational factors.”
The cloud service associated with Mileposts provides teachers immediate access to data that has been available in the past, but was difficult to collect quickly due to the nature of standardized testing and observation. Additionally, this new classroom technology is helping teachers record new data fields, like levels of focus in the classroom.
Mileposts offers all of the necessary tools for teachers to assess exactly where their students stand and if they are up to speed. Students can be tracked by parents, teachers, and administrators as they work their way towards proficiency in their various school subjects.
If a student struggles in a specific area, the issue can now be identified quickly through continual data analysis. From there, collaborative plans and personalized instruction can be implemented just as quickly via the cloud. This ensures one of three things: students stay on par with the materials, get caught up quickly, or get necessary support to overcome a major struggle.
With Mileposts, the chances that students will “slip through the cracks” become much less frequent. When a school is able to consistently and proactively monitor personal student achievement, or lack thereof, they can make well-informed decisions in conjunction with teachers, classroom curriculums, and parents.
Silverback Learning Solutions is very dedicated to combining the skills, passions, and empirical research of experienced educators with the latest interactive technologies available. Recently, Blaine County School District entered into a partnership with Silverback Learning Solutions to provide them with an outlet for nationwide growth.
“Districts in Idaho that utilize the Mileposts service have nothing but success to report,” says Bailey, “and our participation numbers increase weekly,” she adds happily.
Silverback Learning Solutions will be featured at Tech Cocktail’s Boise mixer presented by Cradlepoint – join us!
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