RedShift Space Race

K-12 students face high-pressure observational assessments early on, which can mislabel their abilities and affect school program funding. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, traditional testing practices cause chronic stress that negatively impacts students' test performance, potentially mislabeling their abilities and limiting their future opportunities. New studies highlight the need to rethink these testing practices to ensure a more accurate and supportive assessment process.

Introducing RedShift Space Race, a revolutionary digital game-based assessment that transforms middle school science education. By reducing chronic stress associated with traditional testing, RedShift fosters a motivating and inspiring learning environment that builds student confidence. This innovative, AI-enabled solution aligns with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and provides personalized feedback through engaging trivia style questions and game-like interactions.

RedShift will promote student engagement and confidence through playful elements, multiple 'trial and error' opportunities, and supportive messages. It will offer actionable feedback for teachers and provide targeted pathways for remediation, making it a supportive partner in each student's learning journey. By highlighting individual strengths and areas for growth, RedShift will improve the quality and equity of assessments, empowering students to reach their full potential.

RedShift's cutting-edge solution will leverage the powerful Epic Games Unreal Engine to build and operate its platform. Additionally, students will be able to access our dedicated testing platform at any time, featuring expertly crafted, high-quality assessments. This seamless connection will enable students to take advantage of our comprehensive evaluation tools, anytime, anywhere.

RedShift Space Race will impact the lives of Priority Pre-K-8 learners and their educators through AI-enabled assessment. Our solution will deliver this through:
1) Equitable assessment
Bias mitigation and personalized learning paths will be prioritized with our AI enabled assessment to minimize bias by providing objective evaluations with fairness and equity. The AI will be able to recommend tailored learning paths by analyzing individual performance to ensure an individualized approach for students facing unique challenges. This personalized support is critical for academic success. 

2) Reducing Stress and Anxiety
Flexible pacing, adaptive difficulty, positive reinforcement, real time feedback, and gamification are all core components our AI-enabled assessment will deliver to reduce stress and anxiety related to testing. Our solution will empower students to showcase their knowledge and skills with confidence and accuracy, supporting their well-being and success.

3) Actionable Feedback for Teachers
Provide teachers with actionable feedback, enabling them to tailor assessment and support students more effectively. Our AI enhanced assessment will provide learner centric core insights that focus on equity and individualized targeted pathways for remediation. These insights will present teachers with both short and long term insights increasing their ability to accurately personalize learning for each child.

Throughout my thirty plus year career in education and assessment, I have witnessed firsthand the gap in assessment tools and methods, which often fail to account for the needs of diverse learners. This disparity has resulted in a lack of equity and accessibility, hindering the ability of many learners to demonstrate their knowledge and skills.
Determined to address this issue, I began exploring potential solutions. It was during a pivotal trip to an ATP conference in Greece that I became inspired to explore the concept of gamification in assessments to remove barriers for learners. Since then I have developed the concept of a board game based on assessing NGSS content in an engaging and inclusive manner with the goal of delivering an alternative to traditional testing methods.

My content team consists of highly qualified science assessment specialists from across the US, who bring a wealth of expertise and experience in developing assessments that cater to diverse learners. Our team's proximity to the communities we serve is ensured through our connections with teachers and educators who work directly with students with diverse needs. We have established partnerships with organizations such as K-12 Assessment Solutions from the University of Georgia and edCount, who specialize in alternative assessments and will provide psychometric support and networking opportunities with various Departments of Education for beta testing.

We are a client of the Genesis Tech Incubator,  EVO+ program in St. John's, Newfoundland, where we have access to business leadership, mentoring, and resources that provide invaluable support to start-ups. This provides us with the tools to refine our solution and ensure it meets the needs of our target population.

Our team's design and implementation of the solution are meaningfully guided by the communities' input, ideas, and agendas. We engage with teachers and educators to ensure our assessments are relevant, effective, and inclusive. Our partnerships with organizations like edCount and K-12 Assessment Solutions provide us with expertise and resources to develop assessments that cater to diverse learners. Our solution is designed to address the specific needs of students with diverse needs, and our team's proximity to these communities ensures we are well-positioned to deliver a solution that meets their needs.

In summary, our team's extensive experience in education and assessment, our connections with teachers and educators, and our partnerships with organizations specializing in alternative assessments make us well-positioned to deliver this solution. Our design and implementation are guided by the communities' insights, ensuring a high quality solution that is effective, inclusive and equitable to meet the needs of all learners.

We have built the hard copy prototype of the board game and have some initial testing. We are currently constructing the virtual version of the game based assessment consisting of an interactive game platform and a testing platform that are connected by NGSS content standards. We are not yet ready to bring the virtual game to students and teachers for beta testing.

Traditional assessment methods often fail to accommodate diverse learners, leading to chronic stress that negatively impacts student performance and misrepresents their abilities. Research has shown that stress, exacerbated by factors such as neighborhood violence, poverty, or family instability, can alter students' physiological responses to stressors, including testing. This becomes particularly evident in standardized tests, where students who excel throughout the year often struggle with end-of-year assessments.

To address this issue, we developed RedShift Space Race, a revolutionary game-based assessment that evaluates middle school students' knowledge and skills aligned with NGSS standards. Unlike other products, RedShift Space Race reduces chronic stress associated with poor test performance in science by providing a user-friendly, comfortable, and motivating game-like environment. RedShift Space Race immerses students in engaging assessments aligned with NGSS science standards. It assesses student abilities through “trivia” style questions throughout the game platform and provides additional offerings for practice and evaluation in the mini-testlets made up of standardized style questions that are directly linked to NGSS and/or Common Core standards.

What sets RedShift apart is its high-quality assessment capabilities, built from the ground up and leveraging AI to provide personalized feedback and enable open-ended problem-solving. It analyzes test data, offers complex interactions, and empowers learners and teachers with immediate insights. Students can explore, experiment, and think critically, tackling challenges like creating innovative solutions for establishing colonies on other planets. AI assesses their solutions, provides options, and stimulates new ideas.

The benefits of RedShift include time savings, real-time actionable feedback, targeted remediation, and enhanced learning experiences built around assessments. Our AI-enabled and game-based approach addresses test anxiety and higher-order thinking skills, offering a superior alternative to traditional methods. By revolutionizing the way we approach assessment and learning, RedShift Space Race can lead to a more inclusive, engaging, and effective education system for all.

Our AI-empowered assessment will harness the cutting-edge capabilities of Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to transform the assessment experience. By leveraging ML, our platform will identify complex patterns in student responses to accurately assess their knowledge and skills, predict student performance with precision to pinpoint areas where targeted support or challenge is needed and dynamically adjust question difficulty levels to ensure an individualized learning experience.

We will leverage Natural Language Processing (NLP) to revolutionize science assessment, expanding its applications to include automated scoring, generation of individualized feedback targeting specific scientific outcomes, and analyzing errors to identify common misconceptions and knowledge gaps. Additionally, NLP will enable learning outcome analysis, evaluating student responses against specific NGSS performance expectations and provide actionable insights for teachers to inform instruction.

Our NLP will support teachers by identifying areas where students require additional support, suggesting targeted interventions and resources. By integrating NLP into our AI-enhanced assessments, we will create a comprehensive, equitable and supportive learning ecosystem that empowers students to think scientifically through the removal of barriers in traditional testing methods. We will be using a 3rd party model, utilizing the latest revision of one of the established leading LLM such as Chat GPT.

We have already begun validating the effectiveness of our technology through a combination of alpha testing and a planned comprehensive study in partnership with edCount LLC. Our alpha testing has demonstrated early indications of significant improvement in learners' understanding of NGSS concepts after engaging with the hard copy version of the game. Building on this momentum, our study with edCount LLC aims to rigorously evaluate the validity and effectiveness of our game though:

- assessing its ability to integrate NGSS principles and enhance educational outcomes 

- evaluating our current NGSS training and learning model 

- establishing a product roadmap to launch prototype 

- providing recommendations to enhance educational effectiveness of game within the NGSS framework

Through this research, we seek to gather robust evidence that our technology works and is effective in improving students' understanding of NGSS concepts, ultimately informing future development and refinement of our game. With a detailed plan in place, we are confident that our technology will make a meaningful impact in the classroom and are excited to share our findings and progress upon request.

RedShift Space Race aims to removes systemic assessment barriers by

ensuring equity and combating bias in our AI implementation. This approach is rooted in a deep understanding of the diverse backgrounds and needs of learners. 

We prioritize bias mitigation and personalized learning paths through our AI-enabled assessment, providing objective evaluations with fairness and equity. Our AI will recommend tailored learning paths by analyzing individual performance, ensuring an individualized approach for all students.

To combat algorithmic bias, we will take a multifaceted approach. We will utilize diverse and representative training data, implement bias-detection tools and testing, conduct regular audits and incorporate human oversight and review processes to ensure accountability. Our development and launching process will be designed to monitor and avoid bias, discrimination, and ensure equity through continuous testing and evaluation, regular updates and improvements, transparency in AI decision-making processes, and mechanisms for reporting and addressing issues.

By prioritizing equity and combating bias, we aim to create a supportive and inclusive learning environment. With a goal of providing equitable access to assessment for all learners, regardless of their background or needs. We embrace MIT's definition of equity, recognizing that equitable environments address disparities and strive to eliminate unique and systemic barriers.

Solution Team: 

 1 Founder - Dean Genge

 7 part-time contractors: 

• Software programmer (front-end and backend)

• 2D Art & UI/UX (user interface / user experience).

• Game developer

• Science assessment specialist

• Team lead/project manager

• Researcher

• NGSS Item Developer

As an early-stage team, we have a tentative plan in place to ensure we are pilot-ready within the next year. Our current milestones include completing the basic game prototype by September 2024 and commencing beta testing by January/February 2025.

We have made significant progress so far, having developed the game concept, tutorials, and a substantial number of NGSS assessment-based middle school items (over 400 drop downs and 200 multiple-choice questions). Our focus now is on refining the prototype and preparing for beta testing.

We are confident that with support and guidance, we will be able to meet our goals and be pilot-ready within the desired timeframe. We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate and receive support to further develop our plan, ensuring we are well-prepared to pilot our solution in classrooms with priority learners, including public Transitional Kindergarten and Pre-K children, K-8 students, and particularly Black and Latino learners and those experiencing poverty, within the next 1-2 years.

We will ensure that RedShift Space Race, our AI-enabled assessment solution, is accessible and affordable for priority learners at scale. We will offer flexible pricing models, including subscription-based to accommodate diverse school and district budgets. We will collaborate with educational institutions, non-profits, and government organizations to secure funding and resources, ensuring our solution reaches priority learners.

We will develop strategic partnerships with organizations serving Black and Latino learners and those experiencing poverty ensuring our solution is tailored to their needs.

We will offer multilingual support and accommodations for learners with disabilities. We will continuously monitor and evaluate our solution's impact, making adjustments to ensure it meets the evolving needs of priority learners.

We are excited to apply for the Learner//Meets//Future: AI-Enabled Assessment Challenge, as it offers valuable support to overcome the specific barriers hindering the development and implementation of our innovative AI-powered assessment game.

Firstly, we require financial support to develop the full game, including content creation, game and testlet platforms, and further research and development. This challenge offers the necessary funding to bring our project to life, enabling us to create a comprehensive and engaging AI- enabled assessment tool that empowers learners through quality and equitable assessment.

Secondly, we need technical expertise and guidance to enhance our game and testlet platform, ensuring seamless integration with AI technology and scalability of our solution. 

By participating in this challenge, we hope to gain access to funding, expertise, and technical support that will amplify our impact. RedShift Space Race is strongly aligned with the values of MIT Solve and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, prioritizing equity, innovation, collaboration, and impact. Together through collaboration we can create a transformative assessment tool that makes a lasting, positive impact on learners' lives, and we look forward to the opportunity to collaborate and drive meaningful change in education.