Silverback Learning teams up with Gooru to personalize instruction

Educator founded tech company Silverback Learning, has announced a partnership with Gooru, a free search engine for learning developed by a non-profit organization. Leveraging Gooru’s search capabilities, Siverback’s Mileposts, a  cloud based results-driven educational system installed in schools K-12 nationwide, enables educators to pinpoint the exact educational areas where students individually excel or struggle to identify student needs and immediately suggest the most appropriate and high-quality learning materials available. Thanks to the integration with Gooru, teachers can fill these gaps with personalized, web based educational resources that are aligned with Common Core State Standards, which teachers and schools will be assessed by beginning in the 2014-2015 school year.

“National initiatives such as the implementation of Common Core State Standards and Race To The Top- District (RTT-D) competition, coupled with continuously increasing adoption and availability of technology in our classrooms, is accelerating the most prolific and results-driven improvements in the history of modern education,“ said Dr. Jim Lewis, CEO of Silverback. “The nation’s schools are all striving for personalized learning environments provided at the local level, combined with more access and participation from parents. The Gooru and Silverback partnership creates parent-friendly, personalized learning environments that are ready-made for schools anywhere and of any size.”

Mileposts’ integration of Gooru capabilities will allow educators to customize and share their favorite open educational resources according to student needs via individualized learning plans and interventions. From any PC, tablet or smartphone, families will also be able to access high-quality, safe online resources and match it to their children’s needs through a web portal synchronized to their school’s Mileposts system. The at-school integration is available now and included in every Mileposts subscription, while the at-home portal is currently slated for release early next year.

“Teachers are focused on maximizing student education in the classroom, and therefore are commonly time-challenged to search for and select the best matched educational materials for each and every student based on their individually assessed needs,” said Dr. Prasad Ram, CEO of Gooru in a prepared statement. “The combination of Silverback Learning and Gooru immediately simplifies this entire process, which seamlessly aligns student learning materials with Common Core State Standards to best meet their educational needs, and build upon the learning that happens in class throughout the day. Teachers can more efficiently and confidently supplement their own strategies with the best available free content on the web, ranked by learning outcomes and usage by their peers around the world. At the same time, this technology also empowers parents to work more actively in partnership with teachers and take a more productive role in studying at home.”

“Silverback Learning and Gooru empowers teachers to assess student progress and develop personalized instruction more effectively, and collaborate with students and parents on recommended learning plans,” said Mary Vagner, Superintendent, Idaho’s Pocatello/Chubbuck School District. “I was so excited when I saw the possibilities for streamlined teacher access to high-quality, free digital materials to be accessed in the classroom through Silverback Learning’s Mileposts, which is our tool for managing student interventions. Simply put, teachers don’t have time to search for high-quality materials or navigate multiple systems. Seamless access to Gooru through Mileposts helps teachers by leveraging high-quality, free digital materials aligned with Common Core State Standards to positively and more significantly impact critical collaboration around student learning achievement.”