Partnership Aligns Hatch Education Technology & Teaching Strategies GOLD® Assessment

MAY 22, 2012

WINSTON-SALEM, NC – Hatch®, a leading provider of technology for early learning, and Teaching Strategies, LLC, an early childhood educational publishing company, have partnered to align Hatch’s iStartSmart® computer learning system with Teaching Strategies GOLD® assessment system to enable educators to utilize authentic data from Hatch’s individual child reporting as evidence for each child’s GOLD assessment.”Hatch’s award-winning iStartSmart system provides real-time, authentic data on individual progress toward key skills that can be accessed at any time, and with iStartSmart Mobile, from anywhere. By aligning these activities with Teaching Strategies GOLD, educators now have the ability to conduct more frequent, on-going assessments, giving them the power to make informed observations and instructional decisions, which we have seen lead to improved child outcomes,” said Ginny Norton, president of Hatch.Hatch’s standards-based iStartSmart system includes an automated Child Overview report that tracks child progress in 18 skills areas shown to be essential to children’s math, literacy, and language development. Teaching Strategies GOLD is grounded in 38 research-based objectives aligned with state standards, and is an observation-based assessment system to document development and learning across key milestones. The alignment with Teaching Strategies GOLD will enable educators to confidently connect the iStartSmart individual performance results as milestone and skill mastery evidence to specific objectives and dimensions in the assessment system.

“Teaching Strategies GOLD is a valid and reliable observational assessment system for children birth through kindergarten  that helps teachers understand and guide children’s development and learning. Now, educators can add a rich layer of observation and documentation to the assessment process by integrating data collected through the iStartSmart system from Hatch,” said Diane Trister Dodge, Founder and President of Teaching Strategies. “This alignment will save teachers time, offer more evidence of what children know and can do, and ultimately strengthen teachers’ ability to individualize instruction for each child. We are thrilled to partner with Hatch in this effort.”

About Teaching Strategies, LLC.:
Teaching Strategies is a dynamic educational publishing company that serves the early childhood community exclusively, bringing curriculum, assessment, professional development, and family connection resources to programs serving children from birth through kindergarten. Its mission is to provide the most effective early education resources to support the critical work of early childhood educators. For more information, please visit TeachingStrategies.com.

About Hatch, The Early Learning Experts:
Since 1984, Hatch has been committed to supporting the needs of students and enriching early education. From classroom supplies and education materials, to interactive whiteboard content, to adaptive learning and mobile technology, Hatch(R) is the innovative solutions leader and most widely-used early learning technology provider nationwide. Hatch technologies combine child-appropriate hardware, research-based content tied to standards, and individualized progress monitoring tools, to create complete classroom solutions proven to increase math, literacy and social/emotional development. For more information, please visit http://www.hatchearlylearning.com.