TeachTown Named 2024 Excellence in Equity – Industry Impact Award Winner in Two Categories

The American Consortium for Equity in Education announced that TeachTown was named a winner of the 2024 Excellence in Equity – Industry Impact Award in two categories: Company of the Year - PreK-12 and Early Childhood Solution. The Industry Impact Awards honor the PreK-20 companies, organizations, leaders, and products whose proven results have advanced educational equity and access for learners.

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TeachTown Benchmark Assessments Validity Study

In the 2023-2024 academic year, the TeachTown Research Team partnered with subject matter experts across content areas to rigorously evaluate TeachTown Benchmark Assessments. These experts hold roles in both research-based settings and the practical application of this research in schools. Practitioners examined every single assessment item across 190 benchmark assessments (including all three forms of each assessment) for representativeness, clarity, and bias. Additionally, the Benchmark Assessment as a whole was assessed for comprehensiveness. To ensure a thorough assessment, each Benchmark Assessment was evaluated by 3 different experts.

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How to Support Your Classroom Paraprofessionals

I remember my first year of teaching like it was yesterday. I was brand new to the special education field, had just accepted a role serving students with autism, and was told I would have four paraprofessionals in my classroom. While more seasoned special educators may have been thrilled to be given that kind of support, I could barely grasp managing myself and my students, and now I had four teachers that I was expected to manage, as well. While college courses teach you how to provide instruction and manage paperwork/IEPs (I even remember a course about working with families!), there was no specific guidance provided on managing a team of adults. Let’s explore how to support the invaluable staff who work with our students.

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The Benefits of Multisensory Learning Approaches in Special Education

If you’ve ever sung the ABCs, done the motions to “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” or played a language-learning game on your phone, you’ve experienced multisensory learning firsthand. Chances are, you still remember some of the songs and rhymes you learned in elementary school—and that's because multisensory learning really works! Multisensory learning is an approach that incorporates various modalities and engages multiple senses. Typically, multisensory teaching strategies and activities use some combination of visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile methods.

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