June 2006. TFI Internet Application Programmer attended the annual national FBLA-PBL conference in
Nashville, TN. The student organization had over 1700 students participate in online testing using E-SESS. Online
assessment participation took place as individuals and as teams.
March 2006. TFI was a sponsor of the Midwest ATE conference.
January - February 2006. TFI National Sales Coordinator attended the AATCE Conference.
September 2005. TFI Executive Director conducted a work session with South Carolina Career
and Technology Education teachers. This work session resulted in the creation and validation of an item
bank for 32 end-of-course assessments. These assessments, powered by E-SESS, will be online by the end
of 2005.
June 2005. TFI Executive Director met with Missouri Division of Career Education staff in Jefferson City to introduce online assessments and reporting and how these technologies may be implemented in Agriculture Education courses.
May 2005. In Pittsburg, Kansas, the TFI development and management teams met with the director of Alabama Industrial Development Training and the director of the ALSDE Career/Technical Education Section. The group further delineated the needs anticipated with online assessments and reporting for the Alabama organizations.
April 2005. TFI Executive Director and TFI National Sales Manager attended the Alabama Career and Technical Administrators conference in Orange Beach, Alabama. TFI Executive Director presented detailed information about the Alabama CTE Core Curriculum Assessment, including its inception, development, and validation.
April 2005. TFI Executive Director and TFI National Sales Manager conducted on-site training for CAT1 in Paterson, New Jersey.
April 2005. TFI worked with Alabama Department of Education Career/Technical Education Section staff to conduct validation testing sessions of the Alabama CTE Core Curriculum Assessment. A total of 499 students across the state participated in the validation session.
March 2005. TFI hosted the executive board meetings for the directors of the State's Career Clusters and VTECS. TFI provided meeting facilities, catering services, and entertainment.
February 2005. The TFI development team invited FBLA-PBL, Inc. officers and staff to its campus to discuss item banking and online assessments. Two days of conversations focused on the benefits on item banking and methods of implementing online assessments for the national organization.
January 2005. TFI Executive Director and TFI Internet Application Programmer met with the Alabama Department of Education Career/Technical Education Section Advisory Panel in Montgomery. This meeting included a demonstration of the custom online core curriculum assessment and reporting system. This assessment was prepared for the CTE Section based on the core curriculum standards.
July-August 2004. TFI Executive Director and Pitsco CEO had the opportunity to present learning options for primary and secondary level learners to the planning group of the Tiger Woods Learning Center to be opened in Los Alamitos, CA. Two principal members of the Tiger Woods group will visit TFI and Pitsco headquarters to pursue the dialog.
July 2004. TFI Executive Director and Pitsco CEO met with the staff of the East Los Angeles Skills Center to introduce the use of TFI's CAT1 and Pitsco's CareerPorts. It is expected that the Skills Center will employ these programs in its new "Smart classroom." CAT1 is a dynamic, online, diagnostic-prescriptive assessment and learning program, and CareerPorts are career-focused academic programs delivered online in the form of virtual internships. Interest in these programs resulted from a presentation by TFI's Executive Director at the LAUSD e-Learning Forum in December 2003.
July 2004. TFI has designed a model for the development of Web-delivered career cluster foundation assessments proposed for joint implementation with VTECS, a consortium for career and workforce development resources, situated in Decatur, GA. This model was developed in response to interest by the VTECS task force on public-private relationships and its, VTECS, identification of the need for such certification assessments in the Career and Technical Educational field.
June 2004. TFI recently conducted a study to determine how Alabama's Career and Technical Education efforts fare in terms of objectives set out in the CTE strategic plan. The results of this study will shape future plans of the state CTE department and are recored in the Alabama Department of Education: Career/ Technical Education Annual Report. Alabama CTE released the report at its July conference.
June 2004. At the 3rd Annual Intel Visionary Conference held on May 11, 2004, in Washington, D.C., much discussion centered on the appropriate use of technology in education. Visionaries presented some vital elements to be considered when designing or evaluating learning and technology. In response to the information made available at this conference, TFI's Executive Director prepared a document detailing the implementation and incorporation of technology and a new learning model in Pitsco's newest curriculum line, CareerPorts. That document, Implementing Visionary Needs: A Systemic Learning Model's Innovative Use of Technology, is available for review.
