Kid’s College® is a revolutionary educational solution for K-8 students needing skills practice or remediation in Math and Reading/Language Arts. Kid’s College combines adaptive technology with standards-aligned curriculum to deliver effective, targeted and engaging instruction.

Kid’s College FAQ

Curriculum & Skills

1. Does Kid’s College curriculum automatically adjust to a student’s skill level?
   Yes. Kid’s College STRIDE Adaptive Technology automatically accelerates or remediates each student based on his or her mastery or non-mastery of skill sets within the program.
2. Is Kid’s College curriculum aligned to state standards?
   Yes. Kid’s College curriculum is directly aligned to state standards.
3. Which grades and core subject areas does the curriculum cover?
   K-8 Math and Reading/Language Arts.
4. How many curriculum items are included in the program?
   There are a total of 39,000 curriculum items covering 3,700 skills strands, so students are not repeating the same questions over and over.
5. Are there any additional costs for curriculum updates? No.
6. Who developed the Kid’s College curriculum?
   All of the standards-based questions and state correlations were created by Publishers Resource Group, a well-recognized group of educators with expertise in content development and state correlations.
7. What is a Gap assessment?
   A Kid’s College Gap assessment quickly identifies student skills gaps, providing valuable data for teacher reports.
8. For which grades is Gap assessment available?
   Grades 2-8.
9. In what format are questions presented? All questions are presented in multiple-choice format, consistent with what is seen on state and national standardized tests.
10. Do the questions relate to sports?
    Some questions may relate to sports, but not all of them.
11. Is the program available in Spanish?
    Directions can be provided in Spanish, but the Kid's College program is currently available only in English.
12. Does Kid’s College offer supplemental, offline practice materials?
    Yes. Customized Instructional Workbooks are available and are based on the skills gaps identified for each individual student. With one click, teachers download workbooks in PDF format from within the Classroom Management System. Download the entire workbook or chapters by skill strand, and email to parents.
13. For what grades are Customized Instructional Workbooks available?
    Workbooks are available for grades 3-8. In order to generate a gameplan for a student, he/she must have completed Gap assessment.

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Research and Results

1. What research is available?
   Research, including Product Development, Pedagogical Foundations, and Evidence of Learning, can be found in PDF format in the Resources section of this website.
2. What kind of results have schools had in using Kid’s College?
   We have proven results that students in schools using Kid's College dramatically surpass students in control schools on yearly criterion referenced tests. Kid’s College has assisted schools with meeting AYP and addressing motivation and behavioral problems. See our Success Stories for detailed results.

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Reporting

1. What reports are available?
   Kid’s College offers two sets of reports: 1) Those which teachers and administrators can generate from within the Classroom Management Tool
   and 2) Those available through the Executive Reporting Auto-Email Service. The Classroom Management System reports allow you to customize individual student and class reporting to include state standards and disaggregated data (gender, ethnicity, language, free lunch status, and special education status). Executive Reports are automatically emailed to you weekly to identify skills gaps and mastery or non-mastery of those skills for individual students and classes.
   More on Executive Reports.
2. Does Kid’s College track and report student progress? Yes. Administrators and Teachers can run a Student Progress Report to view progression across grade levels over time. You can also request a Student STRIDE Report to be auto-emailed to you through the Executive Reporting Service.
3. Can reports be emailed to parents?
   Yes. At the teacher’s discretion, parents can receive emailed reports for their children.
4. Can Administrators and Teachers view Executive Reports online?
   Yes. Our new Executive Reporting Warehouse allows you to view all of your Executive Reports in one place online at any time.

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Teacher Management

1. Can teachers differentiate curriculum settings for individual students?
   Yes. From within the Classroom Management System, teachers have the option to change curriculum for 1) the entire class or 2) an individual student. Important: When changing curriculum for an individual student, be sure the “Use Class Settings” box is NOT checked.
2. Can teachers control which subject(s) the students practice? Yes. Teachers can select either Math or Reading/Language Arts, or both.
3. Can teachers control the order of the skills practiced?
   Yes. From within the Classroom Management System, teachers can control the order of skill strands practiced by the class and/or individual students. Or, teachers have another option to allow the STRIDE Adaptive Engine to automatically adjust curriculum for each student based on their individual needs.
4. Can teachers control when a Gap assessment should begin?
   Yes. From within the Classroom Management System, teachers can turn on Gap assessment for individual students or the entire class.
5. How many questions are in the Gap assessment?
   In the Gap assessment for both subjects, there are approximately 300 questions.
6. How does a teacher set up Gap assessment for just one subject or specific skill strands?
   Go to the Curriculum section of the Classroom Management System. In the bottom left corner under “Gap Assessment,” click “Select” to launch a screen where you can select from grades, subjects and specific skill strands.
7. When a teacher wants to use the program strictly for assessment, can she turn off the instructional hints?
   Yes. Instructional hints can be turned on or off at any time from within the Classroom Management System.
8. How many correct answers does a student need to earn a turn at his favorite sports game?
   Teachers can select how many correct answers are needed to earn students a turn at a sport. By default, three correct answers are needed to earn a turn. Teachers may choose between 1-7 questions.
9. Can teachers activate/deactivate game play for each student?
   Yes. Teachers can activate or deactivate game play for individual students whose time in the computer lab is limited, and as a reward (or consequence) for academic and/or behavioral performance.
10. How long does each sport turn last?
    Teachers may also select how long students can play their favorite sport in each turn. The default is 20 seconds, but the teacher may select from 10-30 seconds.
11. If a teacher clears a student’s data, will that clear his/her points in the sports games? No.
12. How can a teacher prevent students from guessing at questions?
    Kid’s College can detect when students are clicking quickly through answer choices (guessing). Students receive pop-up warnings for a first offense. If they continue quick-clicking, game play is deactivated for the remainder of the session and an email is automatically sent to the teacher.
    

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Student Activities

1. Does Kid's College offer sports games for boys and girls?
   Yes. There's something for everyone. Students can select from six sports: snowboarding, soccer, basketball, football, volleyball, and baseball. They can also select a male or female player, and select their ethnicity.
2. What motivates students to answer the questions?
   Students are rewarded with game time when they answer questions correctly. The more game time they earn, they can try to post a higher score and compete with their classmates in the KC Contest rankings.
3. If a student doesn't answer a question correctly on the first try, can he try again?
   Yes. The student gets two tries to answer a question correctly. By default, the program provides an instructional hint after the student answers incorrectly on the first try. This helps the student learn while answering questions, and gives a better chance of answering correctly on the second try.
4. Will a student be rewarded with game time if his first answer is incorrect?
   By default, a student will be rewarded with game time ("power-ups") when he provides the correct answer on his first or second try. However, to prevent students from guessing at the correct answer, teachers and administrators can choose to award power-ups only when a student answers correctly on the first try.

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Accessing Kid's College

1. Is Kid's College available from any computer?
   Yes. Since it is web-based, Kid's College is accessible from any computer that has an Internet connection. Kid's College runs on both Windows and Macintosh platforms.
2. Is the program only available online?
   Yes. Kid's College is no longer available on CD-ROM.
3. What are the minimum computer requirements?
   If your computer does not meet these minimum specifications, please ask your technical coordinator to facilitate necessary upgrades. Adobe Flash Player Version 9.0 or later is required for all platforms. For Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, or Vista: minimum specifications are Internet Explorer 5.1 or later, Netscape 7.0 or later, or Firefox 1.0 or later. For Macintosh 9.2 or higher: Internet Explorer 5.0 or later, or Netscape 7.0 or later. For Macintosh OS X: Internet Explorer 5.2 or later, Netscape 7.2 or later, Firefox 1.0 or later, or Safari 1.2 or later.
4. Can I change my password?
   Yes. You can change your Administrator and Teacher passwords at any time from within the Classroom Management System.
5. Can I assign passwords for my students?
   Yes. You may assign passwords for your students to prevent them from logging in under each other's names. The default is for students to log in using their class's KCC code, and then choose their name from the list of registered students.