Continuous ("formative") assessment, the integration of assessment and instructional management, and the explosion of multilingual instructional software were some of the key themes that stood out among exhibitors at the 25th annual Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC), held Jan. 26-28 in Orlando.

"Formative assessment" was truly the catchphrase at this year's show, as everywhere conference attendees went in the 500-company exhibit hall, these words could be heard. Vendors using the phrase were referring to software that can assess students' understanding of key concepts during the course of the school year, allowing teachers to adjust their instruction accordingly or prescribe extra help for students who need it, before the end of the school year--when it's too late.

Such software holds the key to helping schools meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) goals and ensuring that all students are learning the concepts they need to know for federally mandated end-of-year exams, many people believe. And several companies have stepped up to fill this need for schools: At least two companies--PLATO Learning and Software Technology Inc. (STI)--were promoting white papers they had published that explain the importance of formative assessment, and at least a dozen others demonstrated software solutions that can provide it.

PLATO Learning's PLATO Assessment, for example, enables teachers to perform periodic, standards-based assessment of students, with results available for instant analysis at the student, classroom, school, and district levels. The program enables teachers to administer two types of tests: fixed benchmark tests that are correlated with national and state standards for every state, or customized exams created from an item bank of 180,000 questions aligned with each state's standards. Both options are geared toward students in grades 2-11.

The core of the product comes from Lightspan's EduTest solution, which PLATO acquired when it purchased Lightspan in 2003. The company has been making improvements to the product ever since, and the most complete version--in which teachers can view class and individual student strengths, as well as moderate and high-need areas of focus--has been available since August.

Besides more robust reporting features, the product also offers flexible test delivery options: Teachers can administer the tests online or on paper, and if they give paper-based exams, they can enter the answers online by hand or scan them into the system via computer.

The software's reporting feature has the ability to show each question of an exam, along with the percentage of students who chose each response. Teachers also can drill down to see how students answered each test item. District officials can use the software to view strengths and needs by district or school, and educators can get a progress chart for each content strand throughout the year, so they can fine-tune the order or pace of their curriculum as necessary.