The Client
Scholastic Inc., the
global children's publishing and media company, has 10,000
employees operating globally in education, entertainment and
publishing businesses marketing to children, parents and teachers.
Its corporate mission is to instill the love of reading and
learning for lifelong pleasure in all children. Scholastic.com,
"The Most Trusted Place in Cyberspace", has won
numerous awards including the prestigious Webby Award and
People's Choice Award for the Best Kids Site in 2000. It is
the largest publisher and distributor of children's books
in the world.
The Business Challenge
The overall business challenge was to meet the demand for
performance on high-stakes assessment, which gives students
rewarding experiences with critically-acclaimed books by providing
online standards-aligned tests and provides an indicator of
how students will perform on key state and national assessments.
Scholastic's iReach was designed as an environment in which
students from grade 2 through 8 read real books and then take
online tests based on their grade level which assess their
comprehension and vocabulary skills, with questions targeted
to 39 specific skills. McFadyen Solutions was chosen to work
on all Dynamo Application Server development issues. McFadyen Solutions was also chosen to manage all issues related to
user profiles (login, logout), quizzes and student administration
(activate, deactivate, promote and manage students).
Return on Investment
The Scholastic iReach has provided teachers, students and
parents with a powerful online tool to help them pinpoint
students' skill levels and instructional needs, while engaging
the students in literature. It fills the need for an ever-growing
demand for high quality curriculum resources. The new iReAch
home school license provides teachers and parents with information
about the standards the states' expectations for students,
and diagnostic tools for gauging their children's progress
toward mastery.
The Technology
- The Visual Source - Dynamo
DAS, DPS, DCS (all 5.6)
- Web Server - iPlanet 4.1
- Database - Oracle 8.1.7
- Version Control - PVCS
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