DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
P.O.
SUPTS. MEMO NO. 178
September 8, 2006
INFORMATIONAL
|
TO: |
Division
Superintendents |
|
FROM: |
Billy K. Cannaday, Jr. Superintendent
of Public Instruction |
|
SUBJECT: |
|
The
Virginia Department of Education is pleased to announce statewide availability
of both the Virginia Online Reading Tutorial and the Virginia Online Algebra I
Tutorial. The Virginia Online Reading
Tutorial has been used successfully by over 16,000 students since the 2004-2005
school year.
The Virginia Online Algebra I Tutorial was used in 2005-2006 school year
by over 8,000 students.
Both
tutorials are designed to determine student academic needs through an online
assessment and to tailor Web-based lessons to those needs. Upon completion of all recommended lessons,
students will take a final online assessment.
Students may review tutorial lessons and retake the final online assessment
until they and their teachers are confident the student is prepared for the
appropriate Standards of Learning assessment.
For
the Virginia Online Reading Tutorial, teachers may now enroll seniors who have not
passed the English Reading end-of-course Standards
of Learning assessment, or juniors determined to be at-risk of not passing
this same assessment. The Virginia
Online Algebra I Tutorial is available to students in grades 9 through 12 who
have passed Algebra I (or Algebra I, Part 1, and Algebra I, Part 2; or have
completed the algebra content in an integrated course series) but have failed
the Algebra I Standards of Learning
assessment. Teachers may also enroll
high school students who are at risk of not passing the Algebra I Standards of Learning assessment.
Although
students may engage in lessons from home or school, each school must provide a
facilitator/teacher to serve as a mentor and guide to enrolled students. Facilitators should be endorsed English or
mathematics instructors. Facilitators
will have access to student accounts, will monitor student progress, and offer
individual guidance. School divisions
may also request administrative accounts for division administrators,
principals, or department chairs. These
accounts will enable administrators to track progress of their students.
Information
for System Administrators:
The
Princeton Review is in the process of completing a maintenance project that
includes the addition of new public IP addresses. Please make sure that your firewall settings
will allow traffic to and from the IP ranges listed below. Effective 9 p.m. on September 27, 2006, these
new IP ranges will need to be set in your firewalls in order to access the
Virginia Reading and Algebra I Online Tutorials on the
170.171.242.0/24
204.193.128.0/24
For
more information please contact Princeton Review Customer Support at (888)
778-7737.
Registration:
Attached
are two EXCEL spreadsheets and instructions, one for reading (Attachment A) and
one for Algebra I (Attachment B), which must be completed and e-mailed to
Princeton Review for acceptance. The
list of school identification numbers is included in Attachment C. E-mail completed spreadsheets to VATutorial@review.com. Incomplete spreadsheets will not be accepted.
The
e-mail with attachment to Princeton Review must contain the following:
a.
Division
and school name (e.g.,
b.
Your
contact information including name, e-mail, mailing address, and telephone
number.
For
more information please contact Tracy Robertson, English coordinator, Office of
Middle and High School Instruction by e-mail at Tracy.Robertson@doe.virginia.gov,
or by telephone at (804) 371-7585; or Deborah Kiger
Bliss, mathematics coordinator, Office of Middle and High School Instruction,
by e-mail at Deborah.Bliss@doe.virginia.gov,
or by telephone at (804) 786-6418.
BKC/TR/DKB/yba
Attachments
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/administrators/superintendents_memos/2006/inf178a.xls
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/administrators/superintendents_memos/2006/inf178b.xls
http://www.doe.virginia.gov/administrators/superintendents_memos/2006/inf178c.pdf