Renaissance DnA vs. TestInvite

I think it is well suited for K-12 schools, especially for tracking student growth over time. The ability to easily upload state assessment results and produce pre-built reports provides teachers actionable data. The online assessment system is more appropriate for secondary (grades 6-12) students in our district due to the types of assessments our elementary (K-5) students complete. I have some experience with other systems and think that the illuminate software offers more flexibility in the types of data that can be stored.

Incentivized

Our needs are really well met by Test Invite. Of particular note is the fact that Test Invite provides contemporary methods to assess the knowledge and skills of the test takers. In our field, it is imperative to understand the oral language skills of potential students. With the use of video and audio recording supported questions, we can gain more insight into our students' needs so that we can tailor our services to them better. For language testing, Test Invite really allows the school to reliably collect, analyze and report on essential data needed from students. There are some usability issues with the platform, however, Test Invite has been working diligently to improve on these areas and add additional functionality.

• Easy to use
• Item banks
• Outstanding customer service.
• Reasonable pricing models.
• Integrates well with student info systems.

Incentivized

• Cognitive aptitude assessments.
• Providing assessment platform.
• Providing support during assessment activities.
• English proficiency testing.

• Tech support seemed good but our main issue was never resolved. We received attention and someone was working on our issue, but they could never figure out why our student count was off for 1 grade level even though they said our data looked great.
• The customized reports were powerful, but there was so much to learn for the average administrative user, like a principal, to get the detailed data they need. You would have to have a dedicated person to create customized reports.
• At some point, our representative just stopped calling and there was no further contact. Then our rep left the company and the new rep only sent one email notifying us of the change. That was almost a year ago.

Incentivized

• Some features like Live Proctoring can be included.

Illuminate DnA is a very usable system. A few items to learn and set up can be a bit time-consuming. However, once set up it is easy to use and powerful for a school that staff can master quickly. It has more features then we actually use but I hope we will over time.

Incentivized

It's easy to use.

Our issue was never resolved so that we could use the software to produce accurate reports. Their tech department looked into the issue several times and could never figure out why our student was off and then they just closed the case. They confirmed we were performing the correct steps to load the data and they confirmed our data looked accurate. Great, but again why was our student count off?

Incentivized

This is the most appreciated part of working with Test Invite over the last 2 years. Support was always timely, congenial, effective, and never challenging in terms of response rate or quality of reaction. Our counterpart on the Test Invite side has practically become a member of our team, as they are always extremely involved and ready to provide value while becoming very clear on our needs.

Illuminate DnA offers more flexibility and additional features that our previous Data Director system offered. We were looking for a system that offered an online assessment portal and the ability to create elementary standard-based report cards when we selected the illuminate DnA software. We were impressed with the ability to easily create custom reports and liked the comprehensive student profile page.

Incentivized

I spend a LOT of time researching alternatives. Many required high upfront payments and did not have the functionality I needed. Test Invite was the first platform I tried and I was very happy with it!

Incentivized

• Better handle on student achievement.
• Clarity around achievements on specific standards.

Incentivized

• Students who complete a full placement test before starting their lessons are 80% more likely to continue with lessons after a trial lesson.
• Students and parents have expressed extreme gratitude to our school for providing them with detailed and complete information about their English level.