Nonprofit Signs Agreement to Benefit Public Education in Arizona

PHOENIX--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--The Arizona Charter Schools Association (the Association) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a partnership with fast-growing educational software company, Spiral Universe, Inc., of White Plains, NY. The result of the partnership, a first in the industry, will allow public schools across the state – both charter and district – to access the Association’s “Success Center Online,” a “one-stop shop” for educators, administrators, students and parents.

“We are thrilled to be working alongside a company that keeps each individual school’s needs at the forefront”

Through the partnership and Success Center Online, K-12 public schools will have access to research-driven curricula, assessments and best practices in order to improve individual student achievement. The package includes data-driven decision making features, state standard-aligned assessments, and access to a professional learning community that will provide professional development and support to educators and administrators state-wide. The Spiral Universe school management suite boasts, among other components: intuitive data analysis tools, integrated student and parent communication features, a robust reporting engine with support for state and federal standards, teacher grade books and schedules, a framework for remediation, and detailed medical records.

“We are thrilled to be working alongside a company that keeps each individual school’s needs at the forefront,” says Eileen Sigmund, CEO of the Arizona Charter Schools Association. “This partnership demonstrates our strong commitment to improving student achievement through technology as we send out one million public students into the 21^st century. It also demonstrates that Arizona remains on the forefront of innovation in education. It is our sincere hope that every public school in the state will take advantage of this invaluable resource.”

The most unique and one-of-a-kind feature to the Success Center Online will be access to individual student-level growth charts (www.azcharters.org/growthpercentile). With the charts, teachers will be able to administer an interim assessment aligned to state standards and receive interim growth percentile scores, facilitating swift action rather than requiring schools to wait months after the school year ends for the results of standardized tests.

“Our products adapt to the way schools do things, we don’t expect schools to adapt to our way of doing things,” says Reuben Kerben, CEO and founder of Spiral Universe. “Arizona is the first state in the country to partner with us on an endeavor of this scale, and we are excited to provide our advanced and highly customizable software to each of the state’s public schools.”

Spiral heralds a new and different generation of school information management that increases efficiency, reduces costs, and streamlines school administration. The entire Spiral system is web-based, providing real-time access to all its features from any standard Internet browser. The one-of-a-kind “webtop” platform fosters innovation and collaboration, and represents a paradigm shift for education into the 21^st century.

About The Arizona Charter Schools Association

Founded in 1995, the Arizona Charter Schools Association was reinvigorated in July 2007. In the past year, the reconfigured Association has established itself as a strong advocate and significant resource for quality for the state’s 509 charter schools. The Association is dedicated to high student achievement through quality charter schools and works with their members on issues such as legislation, school advocacy, parent and student rights, as well as research and development on a local and national level. For more information, visit www.azcharters.org or call 602.944.0644 ext. 304.

About Spiral Universe

Founded in 2007 with a mission to bring the best information technology to all schools regardless of their means, Spiral Universe has customers in 44 countries worldwide. The company is focused on modernizing classrooms with user-friendly and intuitive design following the Web 2.0 paradigm. The software is available through a unique "webtop" interface, which brings the traditional desktop environment to users’ web browsers. For more information, visit http://www.spiraluniverse.com or call 1.914.502.4140