Top product: ChalkTalk ELA and Math Instructional Materials with Computer Adaptive Practice

A modern tool for lesson planning and instructional design that can aid teachers in devoting their time to working with students and not planning instructional activities.

District Administration® and FETC®’s Top Ed Tech Products of the Year contest spotlights the most innovative new solutions on the market that are helping school leaders meet the ever-evolving education technology needs of their districts and schools.

A panel of experts chose 15 winners from more than 130 submissions, all of which will be featured during the in-person Future of Education Technology Conference® Jan. 26-28 in Orlando.

Click here for more information and to register for FETC 2022. 

Here’s a look at one of the Top Ed Tech Products of 2022:

SchoolStatus Communication Platform featuring Video Chat

SchoolStatus

What it is: ChalkTalk is a platform for teachers to build, personalize, & run their real-time learning courses. 97% of teachers in the US assemble or write their own lesson plans & teaching materials—with no material relationship to the commercial curriculum. This takes up to 2.5hrs/day and is often one-size-fits-all. ChalkTalk enables teachers to build hyper-personalized courses in under 2 minutes. It’s currently being used to power supplemental ELA & math instruction in high schools leading to higher scores on the PSAT, SAT, and ACT.

In just 10-15 weeks, schools that used ChalkTalk to power their supplemental ELA & math instruction saw their students experience 2-6x more growth on test scores compared to their peers who received 52 weeks of traditional classroom instruction. Our customers include Duval and Pasco, the 20th and 53rd largest districts in the US, to individual schools from New York to Hawaii.

Teachers kick off ChalkTalk by selecting an outcomes measurement test and entering their school schedule. Then ChalkTalk automatically generates custom lessons plans and actionable teaching materials for every day in the schedule:

Whole group instructional materials: items like teaching slides and scripts to facilitate instruction by the teacher. Materials are generated adaptive to the course schedule. Small group activities: students are grouped adaptively in small groups and given real-time activities that match their skill level. Individual practice: finally students apply what they’ve learned through personalized practice that matches their individual skill levels.

ChalkTalk then measures progress using an official state placement & exit test (e.g. SAT, ACT, PSAT).

Why we like it: ChalkTalk is a modern tool for lesson planning and instructional design that can aid teachers in devoting their time and teaching talents to working with students and not planning instructional activities. ChalkTalk automatically generates custom lessons plans that include whole group instruction, small group activities, and individualized practice for every day in the academic schedule. This tool is very helpful to teachers as it gathers materials and creates actionable plans to save time and allow for more personalized learning and human interaction as the teacher is freed from planning time. The data overwhelmingly demonstrates that these lessons improve student learning in math & ELA.

As always, we encourage you to perform your own due diligence before making any investments.

See the full list of winners here.

Eric Weiss
Eric Weiss
Eric is the executive editor of District Administration magazine. He has worked as a journalist at newspapers and in television.

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