Dear Teachers,

This year, [school/district name] will be using Engrade, by McGraw Hill Education, to launch assessments and reports.Engrade is replacing Acuity, also by McGraw Hill Education.

Why the transition?

As you may remember, Acuity included both assessment content and an underlying technology platform. The technology platform that empowered Acuity content has reached its retirement date, and McGraw-Hill Education no longer offers this technology platform.

What about all the content from Acuity?

Engrade is simply the platform on which the Acuity content will be offered. Although your screen will look different, you will still have the same excellent quality assessment content but in a new and better environment. The research-based assessment content and fixed online forms you used in Acuity now live within Engrade. The Readiness assessments and item banks are the same as the ones in Acuity. New items are still written by experts with the same attention to quality and similarity to most of the next generation summative assessments.

How does this affect students?

The student experience in Engrade is very similar to Acuity, but the overall appearance is improved. The interface is brighter and uses the window space more efficiently for an easy to use testing experience. Engrade enhances the student testing experience with an enhanced palette of tools students can use that they did not have in Acuity, such as

  • a note pad,
  • a protractor,
  • better technology-enhanced item response options, and
  • a written response window with a robust set of editing tools.

Students will also find that the tools common to the Acuity and Engrade student testing modules are quite familiar; in fact, the testing tools (e.g., calculator, highlighter, magnifier, etc.) in Acuity were designed based on how the Engrade tools work. Students will feel comfortable with the new interface because it works in much the same way but with better tools.

Your Acuity-Engrade Transition Web Page

To ease the transition, McGraw Hill Education hasput together [an Acuity-Engrade Transition Web Page] that includes helpful information for starting the year successfully with Engrade. The following topics for teachers are covered:

  • Adding student accounts
  • Finding Acuity Content in Engrade
  • Leveraging practice assessments
  • Accessing Reports

There is also an Engrade support page with a searchable knowledge base of hundreds of articles and video tutorials.

Thank you.