Dear Parents and Guardians: We are pleased to let you know that your son or daughter has been registered and provided with login information to access from any computer the Skills Tutor program. The Skills Tutor program has been chosen as the online instruction program for the Cobb County school district. SkillsTutor (grades 9-12) is used to provide students at Hillgrove High School with a new and innovative way to learn. This program is no direct cost to you and acts like a tutor for your child to practice the core fundamental skills required to attain student achievement and improve test performance. Over 765,000 students utilize SkillsTutor nationwide. You can access it online via your school or home computer or anywhere there is Internet access… a library, community center, or church. SkillsTutor aligns with the Georgia High School Graduation Tests, and is designed to help students achieve skill level mastery, prepare for test taking and provide remediation in critical skill areas. What does this mean for your child? Any time, day or night, your child can sit down at your home computer (or any Internet-capable computer), log on to www.MySkillsTutor.com with a user code and personal password and work on any one of 1000 lessons and activities in subjects such as: Reading Writing Language Basic/Intermediate Mathematics Information (Study) Skills Workforce Readiness Skills Science I and II Algebra I Middle Level Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary or Math How can SkillsTutor specifically help my child? Is your child having problems in math or reading? His/her teacher can electronically assign specific lessons or will direct the child to appropriate pre-tests and lesson assignments on the SkillsTutor website. They can easily log in with a password and work on lessons that promote mastery of the concepts in deficient skill areas. Does your child speak Spanish? Several SkillsTutor lessons have an optional Spanish voice-track to hear the audio version of the program. Do you look for enrichment activities to challenge your child? You can involve the entire family in the learning process and make it fun for everyone! How does the process work? First, review the “System Requirements” found at www.achievementtech.com in the support/service area for minimum Internet browser and technical requirements for your computer settings. Most current computers with Internet connectivity will not require any changes. This program does require a computer application called Macromedia Flash. FLASH is a safe and easy-to-download Internet application. It is free and is typically installed with your Internet browser. You may have to download the program to view the SkillsTutor lessons. Second, log on to www.MySkillsTutor.com and type in your child’s User Name, Password and Site Name (which your school will provide). This information must be entered exactly as it appears and is necessary for your student to access the program. SkillsTutor is designed so that your child’s first activity will always be a pretest. Once a pretest is completed, the program will automatically assign specific lessons in identified areas of skill deficiencies to help reinforce the concepts needed for mastery. What about security? Achievement Technologies, Inc., the Maryland-based publisher of web-based SkillsTutor and Learning MileStones and CD-ROM-based CornerStone and SkillsBank recognize the sensitivity of the usage data collected through web-based delivery and will take all necessary measures to prevent unauthorized access. The website utilizes state-of-the-art security and encryption tools. It has been designed by experts in Internet access control and has multiple layers of protective firewalls. The company conforms to strict Federal and industry standards of privacy. There are three levels of access restriction: Administrators (SEE school-wide data and can run reports for all levels.) Teachers (SEE data only for students in their classes and can run reports for parents.) Students (SEE only their own data.) SkillsTutor requires a minimum amount of student and teacher information. No personal data or names are sold or shared with outside parties. When can my student begin using SkillsTutor? Immediately, the duration of this program is one year, during which time the school will conduct a formal evaluation of the program’s effectiveness. All upgrades to the program will be automatic. Again, we are very pleased to offer this new innovative resource for all students and highly encourage you to take advantage of the program. We welcome your feedback. |