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Colegio Peterson S.C.
Pedregal de San Angel, Mexico

"Los comentarios de los maestros han sido muy favorables respecto al avance y aprendizaje de sus alumnos desde que se utiliza el programa en el colegio. Language Arts ha sido muy util para muchos de los maestros asi como Spelling Skills, Science Discovery, reading courses y Math Investigations."

"The teacher's comments have been very favorable regarding the progress and learning that have resulted from their students' use of SucessMaker in school. Language Arts has been very useful for many of the teachers as well as Spelling Skills, Science Discovery, the reading courses and Math Investigations."
     Leticia Mena, teacher at Colegio Peterson

Highlights

• Students in grades 1 through 6 at Colegio Peterson have not only made exceptional gains using SuccessMaker courseware; they have done so using English courseware in a Spanish-speaking environment.
• Since 1999, Colegio Peterson's gains have steadily increased from year to year.

School District Profile

Colegio Peterson Pedregal, located in Mexico City, was the first school in Latin America to use SuccessMaker to enhance mathematics instruction and encourage academic exploration for its students. The Spanish/English bilingual school enrolls 350 students in preK-6.

Challenge

The challenge at Colegio Peterson was to determine the needs of its lowest-achieving students and guide the highest students in their continuing development.

Solution

Colegio Peterson began implementation of Pearson Digital Learning SuccessMaker in November of 1996. All 350 students use SuccessMaker 3 days a week. They attend a 30-minute class, working on 2 sessions each for 13 minutes. Students always begin with Math Concepts and Skills and move on to the various Language Arts programs depending on the school year and the student needs in relation to the School English Program. Teachers at Colegio Peterson, like Leticia Mena, believe SuccessMaker encourages better development in the classroom.

At the beginning of the school year, Colegio Peterson teachers establish goals to motivate their students and ensure the success of the program. Those who achieve their goals receive a special treat, and students who earn the highest average in Math Concepts and Skills earn a diploma that is presented to them at a monthly school ceremony.

Results

The students in grades 1 through 6 have all seen excellent gains with SuccessMaker mathematics courseware.

• An average gain of 1.7 levels in Math Concepts and Skills (MCS) was attained during the 1999-2000 school year, surpassing the annual goal of a 1.5 level gain.
• The class levels show a pattern of increased progress with each successive year of SuccessMaker use, from an average gain of 0.5 in grade 1 to a gain of 2.9 in grade 6.

Colegio Peterson teachers use additional SuccessMaker courses to boost morale and encourage exploration. They allow the students to choose the "game" (academic course) they want to "play" after they have achieved a score of 80 or 90 percent in MCS. The "games" offered include reading, language arts, spelling, science, writing, and problem-solving courses, the majority of which are presented in English. The active use of a variety of courses encourages exploration within the subject matter as well as further discovery of the English language.

Colegio Peterson encourages students to learn basic computer skills through activities such as loading the courses by themselves when choices are offered. Some teachers instruct the kids on how to use the Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation graphics program when creating book reports. They learn about authors and titles by utilizing colors in their presentations, and they import images from Kid Pix to create illustrations, movement, and sound in their book reports. The innovative approach of the Colegio Peterson staff has been an important source of motivation for the students.

Students have made gains year after year with the
Math Concepts and Skills SuccessMaker course.

Students made gains of over a year in Reader's
Workshop during a nine month time frame.

Students in grades 3 through 6 averaged a gain of a year in
Language Arts Strands during a 9 month time frame.

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