Caitlyn Thomas is a Math 8 teacher at the Virginia Virtual Academy powered by K12. The academy formerly used Study Island but made the switch two years ago to USATestprep. Both middle and high school now use the online teacher and student success platform for benchmark assessments and daily classroom instruction.
Thomas believes the USATestprep platform makes it easy for teachers to quickly get up to speed.
“We’ve grown tremendously over the past few years,” she says. “I think one year we had more new than returning teachers and, with so much being new, when we made the switch to a new learning platform it was almost like, ‘Oh no, here’s one more thing to learn.’ But it turned out to be really simple so it was never an issue.”
Teachers at Virginia Virtual Academy are required to use the platform for their benchmark tests throughout the year and may use it additionally as they would like. Thomas uses the platform’s Virginia-aligned standards to prepare her students for SOL testing. She’s currently using the tool to plan her final push to prepare her Math 8 students for May standards testing.
“I use the bank of items for review, checkpoint quizzes, and I create individual quizzes of about 5-10 questions on each standard to make sure my kids are ready and comfortable with what’s coming,” she says. “Virginia is very standards-based, so knowing I have a tool in my back pocket to help me teach the standards is a big help.”
When asked what she would tell schools or teachers considering USATestprep, Thomas says she would call out two things: ease of use and depth of data.
“It’s super easy for me to create assessments. And the breadth of data I get is so far beyond students passing or not passing. I can look at the data by question, by standard, or by category. Having all those pieces of info is super helpful for me to be able to dial in.”
Good luck to all Ms. Thomas’ Math 8 students on their May testing! To learn more about how USATestprep can be used for assessments, test prep, and daily instruction, request a no-obligation free trial.
