The Riverside Publishing Company announced the availability of multi-subject Classroom and Science item banks for Assess2Know quality assessment content. Assess2Know quality content allows school districts to create interim assessment programs that follow their district pacing guide, while being able to measure student mastery of the state standards assessed on end-of-year state assessments. Riverside item banks were developed specifically to help districts acquire the level of student data needed to meet federal accountability requirements. The combination of expertise in assessment and knowledge in reporting allows us to continue to provide the most effective tools for interim benchmark assessment. The new Classroom item banks allow teachers to monitor student progress between administrations of district benchmark assessments. Added benefits include being able to provide a quick snapshot of student proficiency levels in math, reading, and language arts, as well as pinpoint student strengths and weaknesses in specific skill areas. The Science item banks are tightly aligned to specific state standards and represent real-world context and situations. Each course or grade level item bank contains a prompt/scenario-based set of items. All items are assigned a Bloom's Taxonomy and Cognitive Difficulty Level based on the cognitive demands required to answer the item. More than ninety years of assessment expertise stands behind Riverside's Assess2Know test content and alignment. The item banks that make up Assess2Know reflect the highest quality standards in item development. To ensure the creation of high-quality passages, items and assessments, Riverside has established processes and procedures with accompanying checklists that guide development and then are carefully evaluated by developers and editors so that students find the items relevant, interesting, and engaging but not offensive, troubling, or distracting.

The Riverside Publishing Company announced that the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) will use its online data and assessment management solution DataDirector(TM) as the core technology behind ZOOM! Data Source, a new statewide technology project developed by CCSA that allows charter schools to instantly access their achievement and other data at the state, school, classroom, and student level. The project is funded by a $3 million grant from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, and will ensure access to DataDirector through Zoom! Data Source for more than 600 California charter schools and over 200,000 students in the next 5 years. The program may also be extended to charter schools across the country.

The Riverside Publishing Company announced that the Jones County School System in suburban Macon, Georgia, will implement the online data management and assessment solution DataDirector(TM) to improve data management and student achievement in the district. JCSS is working with Riverside in a pilot program designed to develop the Georgia-specific version of DataDirector. Other state-specific versions are currently in use in California, Texas, and Michigan. DataDirector integrates state, district, and local data, allowing educators to manage data from the Georgia tests and exit exams, create Georgia standards-aligned tests, create reports on student progress in acquiring the standards, and make decisions using interrelated data as mandated by NCLB. Georgia's DataDirector Item Bank will contain thousands of test items aligned to the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) in English-language arts, math, and science, as well as history-social science. Designed to be cost-effective in a tight budget environment, DataDirector combines five programs in one, operates easily with low-cost scanners and regular paper, and simplifies all the complicated tasks associated with data collection and reporting. With an outstanding track record of customer satisfaction, DataDirector has been a key factor in improving student performance in other states.