The National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) has been selected to participate in a national initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help build awareness of a new, free online learning platform called ASSISTments.

The ASSISTments are most widely used for middle-school math courses and offer a high-value, tangible service to middle-level principals. One of its key benefits is that it provides principals and teachers with immediate, actionable data to strengthen student achievement.

NAESP joined in this effort because of the platform’s value in strengthening the instructional leadership of principals, especially for grades 4-8.

ASSISTments has received substantial support from several sources, in addition to the Gates Foundation: Carnegie Mellon University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, National Science Foundation and the Department of Education.

The software was developed by two former math teachers, Neil and Christina Heffernan, who are working to disseminate ASSISTments and train teams of principals and teachers. Though they are based in the Boston area, Neil and Christina are available to give presentations, professional development and demonstrations elsewhere. They’re scheduled to conduct a concurrent session and to host a Technology Learning Center at NAESP’ss upcoming conference in Seattle, March 22-24, 2012.

You can find additional information about the Heffernan’s and ASSISTments here:

Teacher and Principal support:   http://teacherwiki.assistment.org/wiki/About_ASSISTments

Up-to-date information about usage statistics: http://www.assistments.org/

Three-minute video featuring educators from Massachusetts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzGUVPcHBiQ

If you’re interested, you can contact them directly at:
Neil Heffernan: nth@wpi.edu; Christina Heffernan: ch@wpi.edu