Company Background

The Company

Education advocate and business and technology leader Shmuel Meitar launched Time To Know to leverage the power of technology to prepare students to compete in a global economy. After positive educator feedback and improved student achievement in Israel, the company introduced U.S. classroom pilots in 2009.

Time to Know’s Digital Teaching Platform is used in 150 fourth and fifth grade classrooms in Texas and New York, with expansion underway. By September 2011, Time To Know’s digital curriculum will be aligned to the Common Core Standards for grades four and five math and English language arts.

The Product

Designed for today’s one-to-one computing classrooms, Time To Know is the first proven teacher-led online curriculum solution that combines individualized instruction with improved critical thinking skills. With the teacher at the center, Time To Know engages students with interactive multimedia lessons, individualizes instruction, encourages peer collaboration, and continuously assesses student work to provide immediate and ongoing feedback.

Time To Know is a complete teaching and learning solution. A sophisticated teacher toolkit streamlines classroom management, allowing teachers to: individualize student learning through customized assignments; launch activities for whole class, small group, and individual instruction; monitor student and class progress; build formative and summative assessments; and develop reports to demonstrate results.

In addition to the Digital Teaching Platform, Time To Know includes comprehensive professional learning to maximize teacher effectiveness and student achievement. Through ongoing training, teachers develop strategies for individualizing instruction, building collaborative learning skills, monitoring student progress in real time, and establishing reflective teaching practices. The professional learning program includes workshops, classroom teaching with observation, and support videos embedded into every lesson.

The Results

After one year in the Time To Know environment, students on average experience a significant jump in achievement scores and demonstrate improved higher-order thinking and collaboration skills. See http://www.timetoknow.com/results.

Students at Grand Prairie Independent School District in Texas who used Time To Know outscored control students on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). In math, Time To Know students outperformed control students by 10.1% (5th grade) to 17.2% (4th grade). In reading, Time To Know students outscored control students by 8.5% (4th grade) to 13% (5th grade). More than 90 percent of students achieved the Met or Commended TAKS performance levels in 4th and 5th grade math. In particular, African Americans students made significant jumps in performance.

While formal results in New York City are not yet available, anecdotal evidence has shown an increase in students’ math reasoning and problem solving skills.

Educators using Time To Know report improved classroom behavior, increased student comfort with technology compared with a traditional teaching model, more purposeful peer group collaboration and increased interactions between teachers and students. See http://www.timetoknow.com/testimonials. In addition, research shows that Time To Know helps schools realize substantial costs savings and efficiencies in the form of paperwork and printing reductions, decreased disciplinary actions, and efficient identification of achievement gaps.