Unique Learning System (ULS) is a special education solution that supports students with disabilities from Pre-K through transition. It provides differentiated, standards-aligned lessons in ELA, math, science, social studies, and life skills with built-in assessments, progress tracking, and automated differentiation.
Attainment is another company our district has used. I do not like the program as well as Unique Learning System. I have found very significant errors in the questions and answers making this not a program I use often. They offer a nice set up with the way the program is laid …
it is the creek that we used between 13–14 years by my ultimate curriculum, which is now called the modified curriculum. I adopted this curriculum in 2013. That is the same year that I switched over to the ultimate curriculum.
Unique Learning System is far superior to Newsela. The symbol support alone makes Unique Learning System much more appropriate for my students. One thing that I like about Newsela is the integrated comprehension questions within the reading. The students cannot advance until …
I did not use their online platform, but the content was really good, and it had similar qualities as the strengths of Unique Learning System. The content was laid out in a simpler manner, and the lesson plans were a lot easier for teachers to use. The math, science, and …
The tracking and reporting in Unique Learning System are very beneficial, and the visuals and differentiation aspect, in my opinion, are more consistent and cleaner. Unique Learning System is most appropriate for our low incidence classroom needs.
We viewed Encore by TeachTown. The product seemed to be a notch above Unique Learning System and included workbooks and other books but was very expensive. The downfalls of Encore was that it did not include the Profile Assessments like Unique Learning System and also the …
I always thought they were complimentary parts of the same curriculum. Unique Learning System provides more comprehensive content with life skills applications. News2you provides high interest material that sparks learning. Literacy concepts for sequence, main idea, and …
I haven't used very many other programs. My school considered Teach Town several years ago and I was part of the group that reviewed it, but I didn't like that it did not have the array of resources that Unique Learning System offers. Currently my company is considering …
I believe that both are unique in their own ways, and when implemented effectively and to their full potential, our students are the ones who benefit most.
I have not used similar products. I do supplement with other products and sites that I access and use out of my own pocket, such as BoomCards, TeachersPayTeachers, etc. but those are not curriculum, just supplemental tools that I use in addition to Unique Learning System. …
News2you is a great resource for maintaining current events, but does not dig deep into curriculum and cover all of the areas like Unique Learning System does.
News2you is more engaging for students. There are more acitivities and opportunities for teachers to self-differentiate for students. Symbolstix is great for pairing with stories in Unique Learning System.
I prefer the group lesson style of UFLI for phonics, but like your phonics courses for individual learning. I prefer the stories of your literacy program. MFMM has much more engaging math activities for my lower level students
I used iReady Reading and Math in Louisiana and in Alabama middle schools. The interactive videos in iReady and Brain Pop are very useful for whole group instruction. I am not able to use iReady in my Severe/Profound classroom. I love how Unique Learning System is …
I have used the Amplify CKLA curriculum from Gen-ed. Some of the stories were good, but some were strange. The simplified stories from Unique Learning System seem to appeal more to my students with ASD than fairy tale stories from the gen-ed curriculum. The gen-ed curriculum …
I have actually recommended it to another teacher in a different district for her autism program since she could level and pace it easily and also easily collect IEP data without stressing out her students with extra work. Unique Learning System is also a good program for our autism program because it is consistent with all core subjects, making is very routine based.
Data tracking and progress reports - Unique Learning System's Polaris feature is a user-friendly, simple way to track and monitor progress towards learners IEP goals. When creating a roadmap that follows a learner's IEP, you input data such as learning profiles and benchmark assessments and rubrics that then produce goal suggestions. You can craft your own goal, use a suggested goal, or choose a goal from the goal library. It gives you a great idea of what goals to target based on learner needs and progress. Entering data is super easy, just a date and a data point, and a graph generates for you. From there, it will show the data trend and flag it for you when it's at risk. It is also easy to add an intervention. Quarterly, I use the progress report feature to generate a report that provides me with the graphs that I use to put into IEP writer.
Curriculum pacing - My school utilizes Unique Learning System for our daily instruction. Unique Learning System provides pacing guides with what to teach and when. Everything is standards aligned and all of the lesson plans have ways that you can differentiate already built into the plans as well as an easy to use, structured/routine based set up that makes daily lessons predictable for learners to increase engagement.
N2Y - My learners love News To You! This provides children with access to informational text. We use it as a "fun Friday" read every week. We read the article in class, watch videos, answer questions, and typically do an activity to go along with it. The kids look forward to it every week, and also enjoy the Joey's Locker games that go along with the articles. They have a new feature to be able to assign activities that go along with the article which is really nice because I assign them as supplemental activities to go along with what we are learning about in class!
Unique Learning System's materials in the science and social studies areas aren't "fluffy" as other areas, but they are continuously adding materials
The layout of the website isn't the most user friendly, but most teachers are able to navigate easily after an initial training
The administrator side of things isn't super straightforward, reports can be confusing to find/run, but the one on one meetings always provide clarity.
I appreciate all the various resources that Unique Learning System has to offer. However, due to my limited interaction with other resources similar to Unique Learning System I do not know enough to compare it against other programs. I also am not a person in charge of renewing Unique Learning System for my organization.
There is a lot of content in Unique Learning System. It can sometimes be time consuming to navigate through everything. I appreciate the depth and breadth of the resources, but it can also be tough to use when I need a worksheet or packet for my students. The use of Unique Learning System on the computer is great, but my students seem to learn best when they have a pen and paper in front of them.
We viewed Encore by TeachTown. The product seemed to be a notch above Unique Learning System and included workbooks and other books but was very expensive. The downfalls of Encore was that it did not include the Profile Assessments like Unique Learning System and also the monthly checkpoints which are very valuable.
Ease of planning is #1. I am able to plan an entire lesson or a week's worth of lessons during my 30-minute planning time.
Data that is collected for IEPs is so valuable and reports are parent-friendly.
Students are able to work on the alternative path toward a diploma because this curriculm is covering all of the standards they need to see in order to earn their diploma.
