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South Colonie Central School District

"The reporting system in SuccessMaker Enterprise allows teachers to determine areas of strength and weakness in math and English language arts for individual learners. Having this information allows us as educators to meet NCLB requirements by allowing us to develop AIS [Academic Intervention Services] plans tailored to meet student needs."
     Jack Adams, Director of Information Technology

Highlights

• SuccessMaker® Enterprise elementary education software from Pearson Digital Learning is helping South Colonie Central School District meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.
• Students in the 2^nd grade exceeded the district goal of 3.00 in math by achieving a 3.11 average for the 2002-2003 year.
• Fifth grade math students greatly exceeded the district goal of 5.00 by reaching a 6.07 average for the 2002-2003 year. Six grade students also exceeded the math goal of 6.00 by achieving a 6.87 average for the same year.
   

Profile

The South Colonie Central School District is located in Albany, New York and consists of eight schools from Kindergarten to grade twelve. Of the 6,000 students enrolled at South Colonie, 4,000 are enrolled in the five elementary schools. The ethnic breakdown of the district is 89.4 percent Caucasian, 5.1 percent African-American, 1.6 percent Hispanic, and 3.9 percent make up other nationalities. Fifteen percent of the students at South Colonie receive a free and reduced-price lunch.
 

Challenge

The district wanted to increase student performance on the New York state assessments in English language arts and mathematics, and remediate those students who have not met the NY state standards in English language arts and mathematics.

Solution

South Colonie Central School District has been using SuccessMaker since 1980, and in 1997 the district upgraded the software to SuccessMaker version 5.5. SuccessMaker® Enterprise from Pearson Digital Learning was implemented at So. Colonie Central School District in September of 2002 for grades 5-8 and in September of 2003 the product was implemented for grades K-4. The program was purchased through funding from the District Board of Education, and training for SuccessMaker Enterprise was paid for by Title II funds.

All second grade students use SuccessMaker Enterprise two times per week (40 minute sessions; 20 minutes of math and 20 minutes of reading.) K-1 students use SuccessMaker Enterprise as computer availability permits. Students in grades 3-6 use the program five times a week in English language arts and math, and students in grades 7-8 use it two times per week in math and English language arts.

Teachers accompany students to the lab sessions. Administrators and teachers review pertinent reports to monitor student performance. Additionally, teachers use reports in parent conferences to discuss student strengths and weaknesses.

According to Jill Currier, English Language Arts Supervisor at South Colonie, "This software [SuccessMaker Enterprise] allows students to work on individualized reading programs tailored to their specific needs as learners. Students are actual participants in the educational program enabling them to positively impact their reading."

Students like the immediate feedback provided for by the program. They also like knowing their performance results at the end of each session.

Currier says, "The ability to generate individualized worksheets allows the teachers to connect the CAI (Computer Aided Instruction) experience to the classroom in a meaningful way, and is reinforcement for the students that their experience in the lab is relevant and important in their educational program."

Teachers and CAI lab coordinators set up CAI competitions to motivate students to perform at the highest level. As an incentive to motivate students even more, end-of-year award ceremonies are held to recognize individual student and class performance.

Currier also thinks that SuccessMaker Enterprise helps with the teacher to parent interaction. She says, "The diagnostic information provided by SuccessMaker Enterprise reports allows teachers to communicate very specific information to the parents about the needs of their learners. Because the reports are easy to comprehend, parents can read and understand where their child is and where they need to be in order to experience success."

SuccessMaker Enterprise assists South Colonie staff in writing individualized AIS plans for use in meeting the requirements of the NCLB Act and allows for specific identification of areas of student weakness, both individually and as a group.

Results

To determine progress of the students, year end averages by class and student are compared and analyzed to monitor the impact of the program on student performance. The following graphs show how students in grades 2, 5 and 6 performed on SuccessMaker Enterprise compared to district goals for the 2002-2003 year.

Jack Adams, Director of Information Technology for South Colonie supports SuccessMaker Enterprise in the district and recognizes its importance. "We purchased SuccessMaker Enterprise because the curriculum is closely aligned with the NYS core curriculum in mathematics and English language arts, and it provides our students with additional opportunities to gain exposure to the content in a meaningful way."
 

Contact us for additional information on how Pearson Digital Learning can help you achieve results with SuccessMaker Enterprise.