Customer Testimonials
“It all started when the College of Teacher Education and Leadership (CTEL) assigned a data committee to assess our immediate and future assessment needs including the need for a system(s) that communicates across and between departments, a system that would meet the needs for state and national accreditation, one that would support the work of the office of academic advising and field experience, one that would support our work with CTEL graduates and one that is easy to use by students, staff and faculty. Quickly Tk20 came to the top of our list. It is an easy to use system that far and away exceeded our expectations for data management.
Tk20 is a remarkable innovative company that has made data management its mission but customer service the heart of their business. The people at every level posses the knowledge to move adoption forward, provide the ongoing support and make data reporting seem effortless.
Tk20 has made it possible for ASU to readily and accurately address our data management needs. We have fewer people inputting data but the results have been terrific. Our previous “multiple systems” are now one so the breadth and depth of our data makes it possible to produce reports accurately and quickly.
The 80+ reports available through Tk20 provide customers with the information they need, but even more importantly Tk20 works with customers to customize reports to meet the specific needs of each customer. The reports have made it possible to respond quickly and accurately to the data needs of the college and provide the data needed to make the best curriculum decisions for our students.
Tk20 has been a fabulous partner for our data management needs. I would highly recommend them to other universities and colleges of education as the premier provider of software systems for their assessment needs and data reporting. Tk20 is definitely the Cadillac of data management systems.”
Dr. Sally Hurwitz, Associate Dean, College of Teacher Education and Leadership,
Arizona State University
“After spending several months comparing vendors and numerous hours on the telephone with current Tk20 customers, UWF decided that Tk20 was the best solution for its comprehensive assessment and reporting needs. Since adopting Tk20 approximately one year ago, Tk20 has become an integral component of the daily operations within the accreditation and accountability office. The data management and reporting capabilities of the system have tremendously reduced the number of hours previously spent manually entering data into numerous spreadsheets. In addition to the system capabilities, Tk20 provides support which goes above and beyond the contractual agreement – from answering questions about the system to providing assessment information based on their experiences from working with other institutions. The UWF Professional Education Unit faculty and staff are pleased to recommend Tk20 to those considering such a product!”
Dr. Melanie DiLoreto, Director of Education Accreditation & Accountability,
University of West Florida
"With our initial NCATE visit looming, we found ourselves with an electronic data collection system that sometimes allowed us to input data and other times did not, data were getting lost as the company upgraded, and our assessment system followed a “collect everything and hope for something” approach. It began feeling like we were part of an endless nightmare.
We gathered an ad hoc committee of education faculty, School of Education leadership, and representatives from IT to review various vendors. We eventually narrowed the vendors down to two for in depth research, campus visits, and checking of references. Specific criteria we used in our selection process included ability to support our assessment system, ease of use, vendor support and assistance, flexibility of use, and potential for campus-wide adoption.
While both of the vendors we studied in depth met most of our criteria, our decision to adopt Tk20 centered largely on the fact that it also provides the capability to track teacher candidates through their gateways, allows us to use it for field and clinical placement, allows for flexibility, and Tk20 personnel are available to assist us.
Currently we are taking steps in setting up our system, and we have been very pleased with the assistance of our Tk20 consultant. We look forward to launching our system with our candidates and faculty at the beginning of the fall semester."
Dr. Rhoda Sommers-Johnson, Dean of the School of Education,
Malone University
"We have been really excited about the implementation of Tk20’s CampusWide Assessment Management and Reporting system on our campus because it will streamline our assessment process so well. It has been virtually painless and very smooth. Everyone at Tk20 has been so helpful and patient with us, working through solutions as needed, so that we have everything we need in the manner that works best for us."
"We looked at several systems before deciding on Tk20’s CampusWide system. And, it was an easy decision to make because there is just no way to compare the ease of installation, the training and support that are available, and the modifications that have been made for our unique needs."
"I would definitely recommend it (and have) to any school that is looking for solutions and not more problems."
The Art Institute of Dallas
"After spending over 18 months evaluating a variety of solutions for our assessment needs, we felt that Tk20 was the most comprehensive system we could find. Since then our relationship with Tk20 has been a very positive one. Our assessment plan is fairly complex and the system has handled the details well. The company has worked closely with us to refine our data collection strategies. As a matter of fact, they have provided us with a level of support that often has gone far beyond what they might be bound to contractually. It is this attention to fostering a good working relationship that clearly sets Tk20 apart from other vendors we deal with. We have been extremely happy with the company’s response to our requests and with the people at Tk20 that we work with. I would highly recommend TK20 for both product and support."
Dr. Philip Waldrop, Associate Dean
for Teacher Education
Middle Tennessee State University
"TK20 serves as a wonderful mechanism for our students. They are able to gain confidence in their artifacts because they can easily align work to program or content standards. This used to be a foreign process, but now is an integral part of coursework. Certainly, it is a delight to see increased ownership over their [the students'] professional growth."
Dr. Nicole Kendall, Assistant Professor
Tennessee State University
"After looking for a year and a half for a data management system that would meet our needs, both internally and for accreditation purposes, I found Tk20. The Higher Ed Tools system is everything I was looking for and more. We have moved from a paper-based system with a great deal of overlap to a streamlined electronic system where all of our data is warehoused in one place and immediately accessible to our faculty, staff and students. The support from the Tk20 team members has been incredible. Not only have they been available for troubleshooting whenever we need them, they have also come to us on several occasions to support our transition. At heart, I am definitely not a "techie," but, I have found the administration of this system to be straightforward and user friendly. As we move more deeply into the system, we continue to find ways to use it to make our work more efficient and effective."
Dr. Michele Winship, Director of Field
Services
Capital University
"Cal Poly’s College of Education selected Tk20 after first developing the basics of what we wanted to assess, and then interviewing five vendors using our assessment system criteria as the list of questions we asked vendors to respond to. Tk20 met or exceeded the criteria we had set forth! Program improvement through data driven decision making prompted the search for an assessment tool that would meet our assessment system’s needs and provide the relevant data for national, state, and university program review and accreditation processes. From the outset, Tk20 has proven extremely helpful by providing a workable project plan, interacting with on-site data management groups to assure them of security for all data needed, and readying those of us technically challenged to assimilate the intricacies of assessment and data management. From the president of Tk20 to our project consultant to the engineers that interface with the college’s Information Services Director, the Tk20 staff have been supportive, consistently effective in solving problems, enthusiastic in their approach to challenges, clear in their expectations, as well as task orientated and businesslike yet able to find humor in our interactions. I have and will continue to recommend Tk20 to others looking for a data management tool that will meet their system’s needs."
Dr. Glen Casey, Associate Dean, College of Education
California Polytechnic State University
"We chose Tk20 due to its power with data management. Although we considered other vendors, we felt that our needs would be best supported by Tk20 products. We were searching for a tool to meet the needs of both State and NCATE accreditation demands. Tk20 has been a partner in our adoption and has worked hard to make sure that the product is functioning in a manner that works for us. The team of people at Tk20 have been wonderful. Each person has been knowledgeable and organized. He/She has followed up on all aspects of the project in a timely manner. Since adopting the product last summer we have been on a steep learning curve, and are still learning how to maximize the potential of this software. Tk20 has provided valuable tools for us as a college to organize many different data sources, including regular data input from our student information system. They have been willing to work with us to make sure that the data is available and working in a manner that supports our institution. Tk20 has allowed us to organize the process of meeting accreditation, and begin answering our own questions about our programs. We are highly pleased with the product, and would willingly recommend it to others. "
Johanna Prince, Unit Administrator,
NCATE Data Administrator/Instructor
University of Maine at Farmington
"Our university was looking for a server-client based electronic portfolio system that would allow our faculty to provide feedback to our students and align artifacts to the standards. In our final selection process we narrowed our focus down to specific criteria. We required vendors to demonstrate the capability of their systems in assessment, reporting, data analysis, and customization to our institution’s needs. It was a unanimous choice by all committee members to go with the TK20 assessment system. Once the institution decided on the TK20 system, not only did we get an application that met our needs, but we also got a dedicated product specialist assigned by TK20 to work with us on every detail of the planning and implementation process. The product specialist has been our first line of support and is very knowledgeable. We feel that TK20 has essentially provided us with a full-time systems consultant who can provide us with suggestions and recommendations in all aspects of the project. Because of our assessment and reporting needs, we require a comprehensive program/application modification as well as assessment tool building and data entry. A team of product specialists and program engineers was very efficient in helping us get our system ready to roll out in a very short time frame. Assessments of student learning and curriculum revision have been ongoing priorities for the professional education unit and have now become integral to the campus-wide mission. The TK20 system allows us to monitor students’ growth by aligning assessment tools to the campus mission, unit conceptual framework, and national subject area standards. Not only were the standards aligned to the content, but we were able to customize the reports based on our needs. We are in the beginning stage of the implementation and, so far, TK20 has been able to work with us on transferring data from our SIS system, test results, and even the state department of education’s demographic information. With TK20’s consultation on this kind of data management, we believe we will eventually produce a meaningful report that will allow us to improve both the curriculum and our students’ learning. We believe that any institution that would involve faculty, administrators, and staff in the selection process and who would invite all the potential vendors that meet the minimum requirement for a comprehensive product demonstration and test would probably come to the same conclusion as we did. We would recommend TK20 to any institution needing a flexible assessment portfolio system."
Dr. Sherry McCarthy
Vice President of Academic Affairs, Academic Dean;
Susan Krumm, Director of Assessment;
Dr. Roger Wen, Acting Chair, Division of Education Director
of Instructional Technology;
William Woods University
"Although LaGrange College has a small teacher education program, we must comply with all NCATE requirements like everybody else does. We generate over 160 separate summative reports for NCATE Standard 1 (Candidate knowledge, skills and dispositions) at the end of each semester. Not only are we concerned with Standard 1 reports there are 14 supplemental assessments, which generate even more program and candidate information. Although required to gather these data and make reports, we do not have an information database expert at our disposal. Moreover, all of us have many other things to do every day. For example, all of us teach – a lot! There are departmental governance responsibilities and college committee assignments to attend to as well. Given our size and resources, our challenge was to find a way to manage this assessment system monster.
To say that we were beginning to drown in our data might be an understatement. Fortunately, Tk20 came to our rescue last February. With an accreditation visit looming on the horizon, the senior Tk20 management promised us that they would have us ready to begin using the system by fall 2007. Through great training, and much handholding, the Tk20 team worked diligently throughout the year. Although I am sure that we asked some pretty dumb questions along the way, there was no time in which our questions were perceived as stupid ones.
This fall we launched Tk20 with all of our candidates and supervising faculty onboard. Not only did we attend well-presented online training sessions offered through out the semester, the Tk20 folks were right there when we needed additional help. When it came time to produce reports for analysis, our Tk20 representative worked closely with us to create precisely the reports we needed. In addition to accessible and organized data, our other evidences, such as portfolios and documents, are organized in the Tk20 document room. Needless to say, we are breathing easier these days now that we have Tk20 as our partner."
Dr. Don Livingston, Chair, Education
Department
LaGrange College
Our College of Education considered several options when choosing a data management software package. We chose to go with TK20 because of the ease of its use and its possibilities. When we asked questions about product performance the answer was always ‘Yes, it can do that’ or ‘We can make it do that on the next update’. The company is extremely flexible and patient with the process of implementation and providing support when needed. The software package is very easy to use and has limitless possibilities. As I continue to work with the program, I continue to develop new ideas about its use. The data we have used from the use of this software has been invaluable. It has assisted us in finding areas of strength in our program but, more importantly, areas of weakness. Without the program, we could not have discovered what we now know about our teacher education program. We highly recommend this company and will continue to tell anybody that will listen about its capabilities."
Dr. Matthew Capps, NCATE Coordinator
and Special Assistant to the Dean for the West College of
Education,
Midwestern State University
"We purchased Tk20’s assessment and reporting solution after using various software programs to aggregate and analyze data for several years – a time consuming and tedious undertaking. We needed a comprehensive solution that would simplify the process of collection, aggregation and analysis of data from all of our systems to be included in our Institutional Report. After completing an exhaustive research, in which we looked at almost every system available, and with the recommendation of a faculty member from Howard University, we selected and licensed the Tk20 system. Tk20’s capabilities for data analysis, aggregation and reporting is outstanding. Tk20’s system is very flexible enabling us to reflect the unique flavor of our university…we don’t have to change the way we operate to adhere to the system. In fact, Tk20 customized our system to satisfy our unique needs – and the support that we’ve received from Tk20 has been exemplary."
Marilyn Hamilton, Technology Coordinator
University of the District of Columbia
"The technology is important - but, what matters most to me is the relationship that you have with the company and the level of support they provide. Tk20 has provided us with exceptional support. The quality and reliability of their service continues to be excellent. When Tk20 promises us something, they gladly deliver and follow up."
Dr. Jacob Collins, Assistant Dean and
Director of Technology
School of Education at Howard University
