Illuminate Blog
Follow our latest stories on educators, students and classroom technology
Meeting the Needs of Our English Language Learners
The issue of meeting the needs of our Long-Term English Learners (LTEL) and English Language Learners (ELL) is challenging and complex. Let’s start by considering some facts. LTEL and ELL…
Getting Grading Right: How to Grade for Learning
Grading is foundational to your role as an educator. If you get grading right, it’ll help everything else that you do like instruction, assessment, curriculum, and evaluation. You’ll also see…
Online Training and Certification
By: Nicole M. McKevett, MA, NCSP As you gear up for the new school year, (or have already started!), remember that FastBridge has online training and certification modules included in…
Creating a Community of Engaged Learners
Since the 1980s, much has been written about student engagement and how to improve it. While various psychological theories contribute to the overall picture of what makes students interested in…
Understanding the Screening to Intervention (s2i) Report
By: Nicole M. McKevett, MA, NCSP After a screening period, do you find yourself wondering “Now what?” Because of this common burning question of many educators, we have developed a…
Illuminator Spotlight: Timothy Brienza (Cibola HS)
Meet Timothy Brienza, the Principal at Cibola High School. His role involves managing the day-to-day activities of his campus and overseeing faculty and staff, which includes setting the educational vision and…
Drive Student Growth in the Classroom With Fastbridge Assessments and Tools
Written By: Rachel Brown Ph.D., NCSP and Jesse Kember Ph. D. FastBridge Learning offers two assessment tools designed to help teachers select and use the most appropriate reading and math…
Identifying the Problem of Percentile Ranks
In education, we frequently use the “Percentile Rank” score a student receives on tests to report to parents and understand how that student performs. As educators we really like the…
Getting Started with FastBridge: Tips for New Users
By: Rachel Brown, Ph.D., NCSP This blog is designed for new FastBridge Learning customers who are wondering where to begin. FastBridge publishes a number of different assessments including those known…
6 Practical Safeguards to Protect Student Data
As schools are preparing students to learn and utilize 21st century skills, it’s natural that students and their teachers are using more and more resources online. As a result, student…