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District 28 pilots digital science investigations to cut paperwork, vendor says 80–90% time savings
Summary
A vendor presentation showed a digital platform for state‑required science investigations that district staff say is being used by thousands of District 28 students; vendor data cited faster grading, instant reports and reduced printing time.
A vendor called Neoscience (presented by Hope Ho, VP of Product and Implementation) demonstrated a digital platform the district is piloting to manage the state’s science investigation requirements for grades 3–8.
Hope Ho told the CEC that New York State requires students in grades 3–8 to complete a total of eight investigations over the years and that the platform converts paper packets into interactive digital investigations, provides accessibility features (audio, scaffolds, calculators and notepads), and automates rubric‑based grading and report generation for teachers and students.
The vendor presented pilot results it attributed to several districts, saying the digital approach reduced paperwork by "80 to 90%" in pilot classrooms and returned roughly "50% of the time" teachers previously spent on administering and grading investigations. Ho also said citywide adoption had expanded to several school districts and that the platform currently showed high usage in District 28: "over 22,000 students" and more than 30,000 active investigations in recent tracking reported during the presentation.
Ho demonstrated student interfaces and class‑level and individual reports that the vendor said allowed teachers to identify class‑level questions and dimensions that were at a developing level for targeted instruction; the platform also stores investigators for later retrieval so students can review earlier work across years.
District staff and the vendor framed the tool as a time‑saving way to meet the state’s investigation requirement and to provide teachers and families with faster data on student performance; the CEC asked questions about accessibility features, grading accuracy and data storage during the live demonstration.
The vendor asked the CEC to view the pilot as a complement to classroom hands‑on work, not a replacement for experiments that require physical materials.
The presentation occurred during the district‑report segment and included a brief live demo and questions from CEC members and principals in attendance.
