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Southport Elementary School MSD Perry Township Indianapolis, IN

Profile

Southport Elementary is a Title I school located in Indianapolis, Indiana. The school enrolls 510 students in kindergarten through grade five and is part of the MSD Perry Township.

Fifty-seven percent of the students at Southport receive a free and reduced-price lunch. The ethnic makeup consists of 79 percent Caucasian, 11 percent African-American, 4 percent Hispanic, and 6 percent of other minorities.

Challenge

Southport needed to find a program that could help with a high poverty, at-risk population and act as a tutor to assist students at their own level. In addition, the school needed an early literacy program for its kindergarten and ESL learners.

Solution

SuccessMaker® Enterprise
Roberta Hannon, principal at Southport Elementary came from a district with a large poverty and at-risk population. That district used a computer program that helped children at their individual level. When principal Hannon came to Southport, she found that SuccessMaker from Pearson Digital Learning was superior to what she had seen in her district; it helped with remediation and provided tutorial help on an individual basis. SuccessMaker was originally implemented at Southport in 1996. Then in 2003, the school upgraded to SuccessMaker Enterprise version 1.1.

All K-5 students use SuccessMaker. There are two fully operational SuccessMaker labs available all day, every day (about 58 computers in all). Aides and bus monitors watch over the children in the labs to ensure they're on task and working. The program is also in the classroom with what first started as an alternative program for at-risk students. Students from two special education classes also use the program as long as they are able to read and use the mouse. Students in grades one through five use SuccessMaker 4 days a week for about 30 minutes a day, alternating between reading and math. Kindergarten students use SuccessMaker for 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week.

Course reports and other reports are run through the SuccessMaker management system regularly to monitor student progress, and help teachers determine which students are not mastering skills. SuccessMaker reports also show growth or lack of growth over time, and daily reports show which students are not on task or working hard enough.

Southport has a "go to" tech savvy second grade teacher who was previously trained in SuccessMaker and now trains the other Southport teachers. Roberta Hannon discusses a recent event: "We have a TV studio here and we did a 'call in‘ show after school. Teachers pulled up class reports for reference and we put our SuccessMaker "go to" teacher on TV so teachers could call in and ask questions. We called it the 'Call-in Kelly Show!' She really helps the teachers."

Waterford Early Reading Program™
The Waterford Early Reading Program came to Southport in 2000 as part of a kindergarten initiative. Teachers had seen a product demo and liked the literacy component and exposure to early reading. The previous principal saw Waterford too—especially the home component with tapes and books. The program is a big motivator for kids because they are able to work on the computer by themselves.

All kindergarten and ESL students use Waterford. Four computers in the full day kindergarten classroom provide 58 students with smoothly rotating individualized instruction for 15 minutes every day.

Results

For two years now, Southport and all of the elementary schools in Perry Township use Tungsten Benchmarks to assess mastery of the Indiana State Standards including the two Edison Schools. The two Perry Township Sixth Grade Academies use this tool as well. Next year, the two middle schools will be added. Students take these assessments monthly to guage their achievement levels. SuccessMaker is giving the students extra practice in different areas to keep them on target with their benchmarks.

According to Hannon, "Students have consistently improved based on the benchmark tests done monthly. Some students score 100 percent on the benchmarks. Teachers expect students to obtain at least a 70 percent and many students score higher, which is a good predictor that they'll probably pass the state test."

Hannon continues to say, " We're a high poverty Title I school and we're still at the top of our district. We think it's because our students use SuccessMaker everyday. Last year we were the top in reading and second in math, and this year we are still in the top three! The students that use Waterford are very motivated and have a sense of pride knowing they can utilize the computer on their own. They look forward to their daily session."

Pearson Digital Learning—A Total Solution Partnership

Southport staff was initially trained on SuccessMaker in 1996. "We never had a complaint about the support we've had with Pearson. Everyone was just a phone call away. If a problem occurred, it was always fixed by the end of the day, which is pretty darn remarkable. We've received very good service from Pearson Digital Learning!" says Hannon.

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