Thoughts from the Superintendent… Dr. George Cameron "SuccessMaker Enterprise is a complete package that provides great accessibility for our kids from kindergarten through the sixth grade in language arts and math. ELD [English Language Development] enables us to provide accessibility and receive individualized, customized reports on students' performance." "The implementation of SuccessMaker has allowed us to monitor student performance on an individual basis at every school, at every grade level. It has enabled us to look at data individually for students and target specific instruction to help those students meet learning gaps they may have in language arts or in math. It has enabled our teachers to use this data to form flex groups, to bring students in, and to give them additional help and assistance as an intervention. This has helped us to achieve those performance benchmarks that we certainly want for all of our students on both the academic performance index and AYP." Quotes from the Director of Technology and Student Assessment… Dr. Christopher Oram, EdD "SuccessMaker has had a positive impact on improving student achievement in both language arts and mathematics. SuccessMaker allows us to use the assessment data contained within the program to predict student performance on state assessments. That information helps us refine our intervention efforts so that we can help students do their very best on the state tests." "Successmaker does a wonderful job of supporting the needs of English Language Learners." "One of the areas we've seen significant improvement is in the academic performance index, which is one of the state accountability measures. Schools in our district, on average, have doubled the state expectation for growth during the time that we've been implementing the SuccessMaker program." "One of the areas we've seen significant improvement is in the academic performance index, which is one of the state accountability measures. Schools in our district, on average, have doubled the state expectation for growth during the time that we've been implementing the SuccessMaker program." "Another area where we have seen significant success is in mathematics. Our schools are significantly out-performing the requirement under AYP in mathematics. Most of our schools are having approximately 55 percent of their students achieve the proficient benchmark in mathematics, which, for a mostly minority and low income community like National City, is pretty significant." |
National School District Location and Community
District Description
The demographic makeup of the student
Challenges Presented
Solution—SuccessMaker® Enterprise According to Dr. Christopher Oram, Director of Technology and Student Assessment, "We had a lot of years during which our student achievement wasn't as good as it could have been. So we started with identifying assessments, regardless of what the state assessment program was. We needed to get a handle on where kids were, and then be able to access it quickly and disaggregate it and process it. This is the best way to know what's happening and when it's happening." National School District implemented Pearson Digital Learning's SuccessMaker Enterprise in 2003. The program was funded by Federal Funding, Title I, and the "No Child Left Behind" initiative.
All of the students in the district utilize the SuccessMaker program. There are currently two models implementing SuccessMaker in the district. First, there is an in-class model where the district provides five computer stations in every classroom. The students can access the software within the structured classroom as part of the instructional program. Second, the schools established learning labs consisting of 20 to 32 computers. The students can access the program as a group to utilize SuccessMaker in a more efficient manner. All workstations utilize the Windows platform. Kindergarten students spend a minimum of 30 hours during the year on the program and students in grades 1–6 spend a minimum of 40 hours. While Dr. Oram reports, "the kids love it," the program must also achieve results.
Rita Palet is the coordinator for the district's school readiness and family literacy programs. She conducted a study to determine SuccessMaker's efficacy on student achievement throughout the district. According to Palet, "The district wanted to see whether SuccessMaker was worth the investment and getting the kind of results needed. So the key comparison was how does the amount of time spent using the program affect results on the California standard tests. We first took a look at math and science. And we found that those students who used SuccessMaker a minimum of 15 hours or more achieved 182 percent higher scores than those who were on for less than 15 hours." Furthermore, Palet says, "When it came to reading and language arts, those students who used the program 14 hours or more scored 42 percent higher than those who used the program for less time." In conjunction with SuccessMaker Enterprise, National School District uses High Stakes Management from Pearson Digital Learning. High Stakes Management is an implementation program that provides an explicit link between student performance on state high stakes tests and performance on SuccessMaker courseware. High Stakes Management allows teachers to use SuccessMaker data to monitor student performance and determine if students are on target to reach their California Standards (CST) goals. According to Dr. Oram, "What's exciting is we can tell a teacher, ‘This kid has a lot of work to do, but if he does these specific things, there is an 85 percent probability that he'll be at the proficient level or above on the state standards test.'" A Principal's Perspective Additional thoughts from Dr. Cindy Waters, Principal, Rancho de la Nación Elementary School
"We went from being a program improvement school, and three years later we were a California Distinguished School, which this school has never had happen to it in over 40 years of being in existence. So, that was a pretty phenomenal thing." "With ESL [English as a Second Language], ELD [English Language Development] and now SuccessMaker, they're really getting a triple dose of English as well as getting their primary language instruction. So they are doing that bilingual program that we all feel is really important for students who come in with their primary language being Spanish or a different language as well." "We were able to do targeted reports and data analysis to determine what level of SuccessMaker or how many hours students needed to be at to make the growth they needed to be at grade level. And so, that kind of data analysis in looking at where they were at in the program along with the classroom assessments allowed us as a staff —teachers in a classroom — to make the right decisions for students in program placement and also in instruction in the classroom."
Contact us for additional information on how Pearson Digital Learning can help you achieve results with SuccessMaker Enterprise.
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