Does your school or district use Measure of Academic Progress (MAP©) assessments?
Yes? Edmentum is excited to announce the launch of the Study Island NWEA™ MAP© Link! Study Island has partnered with the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA™) to offer a fully integrated solution that uses a student’s Measure of Academic Progress (MAP©) assessment results to create an individualized learning path, delivered through the Study Island program. Study Island and NWEA customers can easily pinpoint academic strengths and weaknesses through their NWEA MAP test results, and then automatically target those areas with Study Island’s rigorous, standards-based content. Each student will receive a unique learning path within Study Island based on their individual MAP Rasch unit (RIT) scores.
Why it works:
• Easily upload MAP RIT scores and target specific Study Island content based on those results
• Differentiate instruction with automatically generated individualized learning paths
• Monitor student progress with built-in reporting and immediate student feedback
Monday, December 24, 2012
Study Island and NWEA™ Partner to Drive Student Success
Edmentum Educator EssentialsComprehensive Essentials
Designed for Success
With Edmentum Educator Essentials, ensure program success and drive student achievement with unlimited access to the following service offerings:
Onboarding
Our Education Consultants partner with you to ensure a smooth implementation of your new program. Together we review your purchase, manage student enrollment, and set you up for future training and support.
Virtual Workshops
Keep your implementation on track. As part of your Edmentum partnership, we provide ongoing training through our comprehensive collection of virtual workshops. We know an educators day doesn’t end when the bells rings. Access workshops online and interact live with educators across the country led by one of our educational consultants.
Product Orientation
Learn the basics of your online platform from Edmentum. This helpful training, delivered online, will focus on key features and functionality of the product. Explore initial set-up and management of learners, key reporting and administrative activities, giving you and your staff valuable and practical information to optimize your implementation.
Product Resources
Written sources of information for how to use each product will also be available. These key resources are created and organized for educators, administrators and learners for using each Edmentum product.
MonitoringWith Edmentum monitoring, we ensure schools and districts continue to have success even after implementation. Our implementation team will be with you every step of the way to direct you to training resources and professional development opportunities as they see fit.
SupportWe’re here to guide and support you in achieving your goals. Our live customer support team offers superior technical support as well as high-value instructional support to help educators gain the full value of their Edmentum programs.
Products
• Study Island
• Plato Courseware
• EducationCity
• EdOptions Academy
• Edmentum™ Reading Suite
• Edmentum™ Assessments
• Edmentum™ College & Career
• Services
Solutions
• Credit Recovery
• Test Preperation & Benchmarking
• Common Core & Standards Mastery
• Response to Intervention
• Intervention & Acceleration
• Special Education
• Virtual School
• Reading & Literacy
• Higher Education
• Workforce Readiness
About Us
Edmentum, Inc. is a leading provider of online learning solutions designed to drive learner achievement for academic and career success. With more than 50 years of experience driving significant advances in the industry, Edmentum offers a wide variety of innovative solutions spanning a multitude of program areas to empower 21st century teaching and learning.
Connecttoll-free: 800.447.5286
email: info@edmentum.com
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Study Island Recognized With Industry Awards
By Lauren Williams Tuesday, December 11, 2012 http://www.districtadministration.com/news/study-island-recognized-industry-awards
Edmentum™, a leading provider of online learning solutions, has been recognized for its Study Island learning solution in District Administration and Tech & Learning magazines’ annual awards. Study Island was included in the District Administration Readers’ Choice Top 100 Products of 2012 and received a Tech & Learning Award of Excellence in the Best Upgraded Product category. Study Island is a standards mastery and test-preparation program, specifically designed to help students master the content specified in state and Common Core standards.
“Students at more than 20,000 schools use our Study Island learning solution, and we are very honored it was recognized with these two awards,” said Andy Frost, vice president of product management for Edmentum. “Our number one priority is to support schools and students through our quality academic content, extensive teacher resources and engaging user experiences. We are pleased to be receiving these awards and will continue to enhance our products to meet the needs of the 21st century classroom."
District Administration is read by more than 73,000 K-12 school district leaders across the country and a record number of them participated in selecting the 2012 Top 100 Products winners. The Top 100 winners include a wide variety of products, such as software and hardware, products that will help build and secure districts, and those that will streamline a district’s ever-changing technology functions. The list also includes programs that will help improve learner reading, writing, science and math comprehension, as well as products that help evaluate and analyze their growth.
The Tech & Learning Best Upgraded Product category honors already-released products that have made significant enhancements and evolved with the changing technology to continue to offer the highest quality experiences for educators and students. Tech & Learning's Awards of Excellence program has been recognizing outstanding ed tech curriculum products for 30 years. It recognizes both the "best of the best" and creative new offerings that help educators in the business of teaching, training and managing with technology.
Edmentum, Inc. is a leading provider of online learning solutions designed to drive learner achievement for academic and career success. With more than 50 years of experience driving significant advances in the industry, Edmentum offers a wide variety of innovative solutions spanning a multitude of program areas to empower 21st century teaching and learning. For more information, visit www.edmentum.com.
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Change Education with Edmentum: A new series on Edmentum products
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about change. In addition to changing the name of three different companies this year, friends and colleagues of mine have changed jobs, job titles, and responsibilities. New business cards, new logos, new letterheads, new products. That’s a LOT of change. And while I can't argue with my dentist that some people don't like change, I can honestly say that I love it. For most of us at Edmentum, in fact, change is nothing new. All three companies that are now part of Edmentum have always embraced change. It’s in our corporate DNA. From our CEO to our instructional designers to our education consultants, we love change. We embrace it. And that makes us uniquely suited to help educators drive change as they create their 21st century classroom.
To say that Edmentum is redefining the 21st century classroom is no small thing, but we have tremendous confidence in educators' ability to drive change that increases student achievement. My job at Edmentum is to ensure that the products we build deliver on that promise. The promise that when you partner with us to implement an Edmentum online learning product, you can feel confident that you're going to see the kind of change in student achievement that you expect.
• When schools leverage Study Island for online standards practice, they see an improvement in standardized test scores.
• When reading specialists supplement their early reading program with Reading Eggs, they see measurable gains in literacy.
• When districts build an online Credit Recovery program with Plato Courseware, they see an increase in their graduation rate.
• When middle schools bolster their ESL program with ESL Reading Smart, they see a noticeable change in their students' confidence.
• When community colleges provide additional online resources to their developmental education learners through Edmentum Higher Ed, they see a significant lift in course completion and retention.
• When high school teachers personalize online learning with Edmentum Assessments, they see students engage in ways they never anticipated.
• When principals partner with Edmentum consultants for professional development, they see wonderful changes in online teaching and blended learning.
Over the next several weeks, you'll see posts from several members of our product management team describing in more detail how Edmentum products help educators drive change as they create the new 21st century classroom.
by Andy Frost is the VP of Product Management at Edmentum.
From the Edmentum blog 12.6.12
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Evidence of Effectiveness of Study Island, EducationCity, and Reading Eggs Learning Solutions on Student Achievement
This is a synopsis of a new research study (October 2012); email me if you want the complete study: pat.ryan@archlearning.com
Study at a Glance
• The study examines the impact of Study Island, EducationCity, and Reading Eggs on mathematics and reading achievement in 514 classrooms from 81 schools across 12 districts in eight states over a multiyear period.
• Results indicate that classrooms using Study Island, EducationCity, and Reading Eggs solutions experience growth in learning at a rate significantly higher than district and state averages.
• Overall, 77% of classes using at least one of these programs exhibited achievement gains from the prior year in math; 75% of classes realized gains in reading.
• Among classrooms that expanded their subscription to include an additional solution during the second study year, 90% of math and 85% of reading classes saw gains from the baseline year.
• Classrooms using Study Island, EducationCity, and Reading Eggs experienced academic growth gains up to 500% greater than the rate of district growth during the study period.
Conclusion
The research evidence documented in this study about Study Island, EducationCity, and Reading Eggs all points in the same direction: Students in classrooms using these solutions exhibit significantly greater achievement gains compared with overall district and state growth rates. Using these products in classrooms resulted in gains that were, on average, three times greater than district and state averages. For schools with the most acute instructional needs, the achievement gains were even more pronounced as product users in low-performing schools achieved rates of growth that were six times greater than nonusers within their district in math and four times greater in reading.
Schools that harnessed multiple learning solutions to target specific instructional skills in reading and mathematics evidenced the largest rates of growth in the study sample. In math, classes that bundled Study Island and EducationCity experienced growth that was seven times greater than the district average. Users who implemented various configurations of Study Island, EducationCity, and Reading Eggs experienced approximately double-digit proficiency rate increases in reading over one academic year.
Conversely, classes in schools that did not renew their product subscriptions experienced deep declines in proficiency rates in both math and reading, while overall district and state proficiency rates increased during the same period.
Archipelago Learning and PLATO Learning Win Four EDDIE Awards
PLATO Learning and Archipelago Learning, leading subscription-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers of educational solutions, have won four Education Software Review Awards (EDDIEs). Study Island won best lesson planning website for upper elementary, EducationCity won best elementary multi-subject website, and PLATO Learning’s PLATO Physics and PLATO Chemistry products both won awards for best physics and best chemistry in their respective categories.
“We are very excited to be recognized,” said Andy Frost, Vice President, Product Management for PLATO Learning. “Our number one priority is to support our customers through our quality academic content, extensive teacher resources, and engaging user experience. We are honored to have four products win this prestigious award.”
The ComputED Gazette recently announced the winners of its 17th Annual Education Software Review Awards targeting innovative and content-rich programs and websites that augment the classroom and improve teacher productivity. Winners are selected based on academic content, potential for broad classroom use, technical merit, subject approach, and management system.
About PLATO Learning
PLATO Learning is a leading provider of high-value, comprehensive online solutions that support educators in their mission to successfully transition learners from one stage to the next in their educational endeavors. With our focus on learner achievement and educational success, PLATO Learning offers a wide variety of solutions to cover multiple program areas.
About Archipelago Learning
Archipelago Learning, a PLATO Learning company, is a leading subscription-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of education products used by approximately 14 million students in nearly 38,700 schools throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Our comprehensive digital supplemental product suite uses technology to transform education. We make rigorous learning fun, engaging, accessible and affordable. For more information, please visit us at www.archipelagolearning.com.
Monday, August 20, 2012
What do teachers make?
Sunday, August 5, 2012
EducationCity Expands Activities and Adds New Features
Archipelago Learning, a PLATO Learning company, has expanded the activities offered in EducationCity, an online teaching and learning resource mapped to individual state academic standards in math and science. EducationCity is adding over 100 new Kindergarten through second grade activities aligned to the Common Core State Standards. Additionally, EducationCity has new search functions to optimize usability, and has recently enhanced the Subject-Select and Activity-Select user interfaces to make them easier to use and more intuitive for customers.
“Teachers tell us that students like using EducationCity because it’s dynamic and engaging,” said Andy Frost, PLATO vice president for product management. “As we maintain our commitment to offering tools that make learning both effective and fun, we’re excited to unveil our new fall product enhancements.”
With the new EducationCity features, teachers can more easily identify grade level- resources to easily integrate EducationCity’s lessons and activities into classroom instruction.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Archipelago Learning Wins SIIA CODiE Award for Best Student Assessment Solution
Archipelago Learning, a PLATO Learning company and leading subscription-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of education solutions, has won the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) CODiE Award for Best Student Assessment Solution. Study Island is a web-based instruction, practice, and learning program built from individual state standards used by thousands of students, educators and administrators internationally.
SIIA, the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, announced Study Island 5.0 as one of 29 CODiE Award winners in the education technology category. Study Island 5.0 included the release of flash animations, new games, enhanced customer reporting, and mobile optimization. An SIIA CODiE Award win is regarded as an especially prestigious honor because each award winner is selected by a combination of educators and SIIA members-company peers
"We're honored to be awarded a CODiE for the Best Student Assessment Solution," said Ray Lowry, Archipelago Learning's Chief Technology Officer overseeing the release of Study Island 5.0. "Study Island supports educators, and helps them identify each student's unique needs and capabilities."
"This year's winners reflect excellence and vision," noted SIIA Vice President for the Education Division, Karen Billings. "I'm proud to congratulate them on the success of their applications, platforms, and products."
Sunday, July 1, 2012
ISTE 2012 NEWS: Archipelago Learning Previews EdIslands Study Island Interface
Archipelago Learning, a PLATO Learning company, previewed EdIslands Portal and a new user interface for Study Island at the International Society for Technology Education (ISTE) 2012 in San Diego.
The new Study Island user interface offers simplified navigation, more streamlined reporting, and intuitive icons.
The EdIslands Portal is a new site offering schools single sign-on access to Archipelago Learning’s full suite of subscription-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) products. As a product hub, the EdIslands Portal will give educators and students quick access to their purchased products, including:
- Study Island, a K-12 instruction, practice and learning program built from individual state and Common Core standards;
- EducationCity, a Pre-K-6th grade teaching and learning resource mapped to individual state standards;
- Reading Eggs, a comprehensive supplemental literacy program for early learners in PreK-2nd grade;
- Reading Eggspress, an advanced supplemental literacy program for 2nd-6th graders;
- ESL ReadingSmart, a learning environment designed to accelerate English language development for English language learners in grades 4-12; and
- ESL ReadingMate, an individualized reading intervention program that prepares students in grades 4-12 to read at grade level.
Both the EdIslands Portal and new Study Island user interface will be available later this fall.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Study Island and NWEA MAP Integration - Coming Soon!
Archipelago Learning, a PLATO Learning company, has just announced the official agreement to team with the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) following a successful pilot integration of Study Island with NWEA’s MAP assessments in Kentucky and Arizona.
When the partnership kicks into gear later this school year, Study Island will leverage detailed data in the NWEA Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) about where students are performing to prescribe learning paths within Study Island that target each student’s specific needs based on their MAP results.
Students can select the topic or topics to practice based on their prescribed learning strand and the NWEA MAP report provides educators a detailed analysis of individual student progress allowing them to personalize learning experiences for students in Study Island based on MAP results.
Look for more information on this powerful partnership coming soon.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Summer Academic Challenge from Study Island
Keep students sharp this summer with Study Island
Whether they are in school or at home, ensure your students are in tip-top shape when they return to classes this fall by competing in the Study Island Summer Academic challenge: July 2-27, 2012.
Compete to win $500 in Archipelago Learning products!
Joining the challenge is as easy as 1 - 2 - 3
1 REGISTER your school online by Monday, July 2.
2 COMPETE. Schools across the country compete by correctly answering as many Study Island questions as they can throughout the month of July.
3 WIN prizes!
Here is the link with information about the contest and how to register: www.studyislandemails.com/summerchallenge/
JCPS announces "Every 1 Learns" using Study Island
Community collaboration extends learning and enrichment.
School may be out for the summer, but learning continues thanks to a new multi-faceted community partnership. Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) Superintendent Dr. Donna Hargens has introduced the Every 1 Learns initiative, which will extend learning time for students beyond the traditional classroom by providing engaging instructional and cultural opportunities.
One facet of the initiative is centered on extended learning programs called Study Island and SuccessMaker, which are accessible at local Learning Place sites. Until now, the programs were accessible only for students significantly below grade level in math or reading, but Dr. Hargens announced that all students are now eligible to use them.
Parents can register their child for the learning programs by calling 485-7455. Parents and students can find facilities near them that offer the programs by visiting the Learning Place Finder on the JCPS Web site at http://apps.jefferson.kyschools.us/Demographics/LearningPlaceFinder.aspx.
The programs also can be accessed at home on any computer with Internet access. “Learning cannot end when the bell rings,” Hargens says. “This community effort ensures students are presented with engaging opportunities to grow academically that produce real results and increase student achievement.”
Data shows that JCPS students have increased instructional time and have improved grade level knowledge through the learning programs. Study Island offers online instruction, review, and practice in mastering grade level state standards for students in grades 3-12. SuccessMaker is a digitally driven program for reading and math instruction. Typically used by students in grades 3-8, the program includes games, videos, and interactive text designed for 21st century learners.
Dr. Hargens also announced a community partnership that promotes enrichment opportunities at several locations in our community. When students visit places like the Louisville Zoo and the Louisville Science Center, they can scan a QR code that will let them register their enrichment time at the facility. A list of participating facilities is available through the Learning Place Finder.
A video of the Every 1 Learns announcement is available on the JCPS YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/jcpsweb.
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Study Island Launches Common Core Benchmarking Program for Grades 6-8
Archipelago Learning, a PLATO Learning company, has launched Study Island's Common Core Benchmarking for grades 6-8. Study Island is a web-based instruction, practice and learning program built from individual state and Common Core standards. The new benchmarking tests allow teachers of grades 6-8 to better evaluate students' proficiencies against the Common Core Standards.
Designed to help prepare students for success in college and their future careers, the Common Core Standards provide clarity to teachers on what they are expected to teach in math and English language arts. The standards, which have now been formally adopted by all but four states, allow teachers to tailor teaching to expected outcomes, and give students greater understanding of what concepts they are expected to master. With Common Core
Benchmarking in Study Island, teachers can easily pinpoint student strengths and weaknesses at a specific point in time against the Common Core Standards.
"Study Island Common Core Benchmarking acts as an instant diagnostic for teachers to target an individual student's needs," said Cathy Caldwell, vice president, product development for Archipelago Learning. "Where the Common Core Standards serve to create efficiency and manage expectations, benchmarking optimizes a teacher's resources so instruction can be applied where it is needed most."
Earlier this year, the award-winning Study Island program added Common Core Benchmarking for grades 3-5.
About Archipelago Learning
Archipelago Learning, a PLATO Learning company, is a leading subscription-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider of education products used by approximately 14 million students in nearly 38,700 schools throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Our comprehensive digital supplemental product suite uses technology to transform education. We make rigorous learning fun, engaging, accessible and affordable. For more information, please visit us at http://www.archipelagolearning.com/.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
15 Critical Facts Everyone Should Know About Summer Learning Loss
[I was asked to re-post this article and am pleased to do so. It has some great links with additional information included.]
http://www.onlinecollege.org/2012/05/15/15-critical-facts-everyone-should-know-about-summer-learning-loss/
Summer vacation is a long entrenched tradition for American schoolchildren and their families, but new research is showing that this practice may not be the best when it comes to helping kids get the most out of their educational experience. In fact, for some kids, a few months off in the summer can lead to major setbacks in school, including loss of knowledge and lowered test scores. Many schools, aware of the growing body of evidence that points to the educational problems summer vacations pose, are switching to year-round schedules, but there are many more around the nation that are finding it hard to make the switch due to resistance from teachers, students, and parents alike. Here, we share some facts that can help make understanding why extended summer vacations should be a thing of the past for modern students, especially those who are in high-risk communities where every moment in the classroom counts.
1. Students score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer vacation than they do at the beginning of summer vacation
While having a few months off for rest and relaxation might seem beneficial to students, it can actually have some serious consequences. The traditional long summer vacation often results in serious learning loss, something researchers have known for more than 100 years now. A century of study has shown that students routinely score lower on standardized tests at the end of summer vacation than they did just a few months earlier, with low-income and at-risk students seeing the biggest drops, the exact groups so many schools are trying so hard to push to have better test scores.
2. Students will lose about two months of math computational skills over the summer
When it comes to summer learning loss, math takes one of the biggest hits. On average, students lose about 2.6 months worth of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills during their summer break. With many schools struggling to meet state and federal standards in math, these kinds of losses aren't doing anything to help matters.
3. Reading and spelling abilities are also affected
Math isn't the only subject that takes a knock over summer vacation. Losses in reading and spelling abilities may also occur, though income may play a significant role in how severe these losses are, or whether or not they occur at all. While middle-income students usually see a rise in reading performance during the summer months, lower-income students may lose two or more months worth of reading achievement. Students at all income levels, however, were likely to lose a month or more of spelling learning skills, the second highest loss in any area.
4. Students with the biggest losses over the summer are in already higher-risk low income groups
Sadly, the students who see the biggest drops in test scores and educational achievement are those who are in lower-income groups. Income plays a major role in determining just how much learning loss will occur over the summer, with students from middle- or upper-class families undergoing much lower levels of learning loss than their poorer counterparts.
5. Summer learning loss can follow students through high school, college, and beyond
Summer learning loss isn't a temporary phenomenon. Losses can accumulate over years, eventually resulting in students who perform below their grade level. Low-income students, those who lose the most from time away from school, see the biggest impact, not only reporting lower test scores but higher drop-out rates and lower numbers of students who head to college.
6. Only 9.2% of America's 48 million students attend summer school
Today, just under 10% of students nationwide participate in summer school or attend schools with non-traditional calendars. That means that more than 90% of students in America will be at risk for potentially damaging summer learning loss.
7. Parents play a key role in filling in the gaps over the summer
When it comes to helping stanch summer learning loss, parents have a key role to play. Learning loss is much less pronounced, if there at all, in families that enrolled children in classes, took trips to local libraries, participated in reading programs, or took advantage of other, often free, learning opportunities. Numerous studies have shown that children have much better reading outcomes when parents are involved in learning about and helping their children with literacy.
8. The current 9-month school calendar was established to suit demands that no longer exist [sorry, this link didn't work]
Having a nice, long summer vacation may be an American tradition, but it isn't one that really reflects the needs and demands of the modern world. The traditional academic calendar used in most schools was developed when most families worked in agriculture and air conditioning systems had yet to be invented. Since neither of these are realities in much of America these days, many have argued that long summer breaks simply aren't necessary anymore, especially because they take such a hefty toll on test scores and academic performance.
9. Much of the achievement gap between disadvantaged youths and their peers can be explained by summer learning loss in elementary school
Because students who are from low-income families have unequal access to summer learning opportunities, many fall behind in their studies and cannot keep up with their wealthier peers. While it might not seem that the summer months would have a big impact on students, it's estimated that as much as two-thirds of the achievement gap is the result of summer learning loss. As a result of these early losses, low-income youth are less likely to graduate from high school or to enter college.
10. Many parents and students want to engage in summer learning programs but do not have access to them
A 2010 report by the Afterschool Alliance found that, while only 25% of students were currently participating in summer learning programs, many more would like the opportunity to do so. A full 83% of parents supported spending public funds on summer learning programs and 67% of low-income parents said their children would enroll in a summer program if they could.
11. What students lose in knowledge, they often gain in weight
Students get more than book learning from time spent at school; they also learn to eat a healthy diet. Many depend on the nutritious meals given to them by their school to be able to maintain a healthy diet. When these federally subsidized meals are no longer available to them, students often make poorer food choices, especially when left unsupervised by working parents. Currently, only one in five of the 15.3 million children who participate in the free or reduced lunch program get federally sponsored lunches over the summer. A 2007 study found that most children, especially those already at risk of obesity, gain weight more rapidly over summer break.
12. Research shows that teachers typically spend between four to six weeks re-teaching material that students have forgotten over the summer
Summer learning loss isn't just bad for students, it also makes things more difficult for educators. In order to come back from losses caused by an extended time away from school, teachers must spend a month or more re-teaching or reviewing material students have already been taught. It goes without saying that this is a huge waste of valuable classroom time that could be better spent teaching students new material.
13. More than 11% of children between the ages of 6 and 12 care for themselves over the summer months
This means that they are unsupervised, a situation that is not only dangerous but that often leads to greater summer learning losses, as children are not being guided through learning opportunities like trips to the library, museums, or educational vacations. Low-income children are much more likely to be left unsupervised (likely due to the high costs of childcare), a fact that is reflected in greater levels of learning loss.
14. Out-of-school time can be dangerous for unsupervised children and teens
Students who are alone for most of the day over summer vacation aren't just losing important educational information, they're also being put at a higher risk for dropping out altogether. Unsupervised children and teens are more likely to use alcohol, drugs, and tobacco; engage in criminal and other high-risk behaviors; receive poor grades; and drop out of school than those who are supervised and engaged by adults over the summer months and after school during the school year.
15. Most summer learning programs are remedial
Sadly, students today have few options for federally- and state-sponsored summer school programs. Summer school has a negative connotation which can make students reluctant to take classes and parents unwilling to enroll them. Why? More than 90% of summer school programs are remedial, targeting only students who are not performing at grade level. While these kinds of programs can be positive for students, studies have shown that year-round education programs and extended school years are far more effective methods of stemming the summer learning loss phenomenon.
May 15th, 2012 written by Site Administrator
Friday, May 11, 2012
Yough seventh-graders best in nation at math
A group of seventh-grade students from Yough Middle School have proven that commitment and hard work pay off.
They were recently informed that they were ranked first in the nation in the Study Island Academic Math Spirit competition.
Placing first out of 157 schools who took part in the competition nationally is quite a feat for the 100 students of Bonnie Egeland's math classes. The students worked for a one week period submitting math answers for the competition.
"It's amazing," Yough Middle school principal Anthony DeMaro said. "These students showed the power of inspiration and the power of motivation."
Study Island is a standards-based online learning program used by millions of students.
This was the first year that Study Island, founded in 2000, held the competition that was offered to students in 23 states.
Working both in class and at home, the students, who number about 100, spent many hours during the week of April 16 -20 on the competition.
The students at the middle school won the gold medal prize in the middle school division by correctly answering the highest average number of Study Island math questions per student. Students answered 77, 364 correct math questions for an average of 730 questions per student. Over the course of the four-week contest, Yough Intermediate Middle School finished in first place nationwide.
"We were 'in it to win it,'" laughed teacher Bonnie Egeland. "That was our motto."
Students worked in class and also on their own at home during the week, racking up as many math problems as they could.
"I went to bed early so I could get up," student Josh Esch said. "I worked on this whenever I had time. Whenever I was at home on the computer I'd just say 'maybe I'll go on Study Island' and I would."
Egeland said that the contest also became a completion between the students in some cases, and also between schools.
"One of the students heard that someone at Hempfield had 10,000," Egeland said. "These students were just so motivated and excited to do this."
John McClaren had over 15,000 math questions answered correctly and said that he worked hard to get the high numbers.
"I wanted to see how many I could get," McClaren said. "I didn't think that I had over 13,000 so I was happy."
In addition to the school award, Abbie Filapose was contacted that she ranked number one in the middle school division by correctly answering an incredible 23,823 math questions.
"I was really excited," Filapose said when she was told that she had ranked first out of the 23,918 middle school students across the nation who were part of the competition. "I ran up my driveway and screamed."
For winning the competition, the school will be awarded $1000 worth of Study Island Learning Products and Filapose will receive a $100 Amazon gift card that was also matched by her parents and by Egeland.
"We were told that Yough blew all the other schools out of the water," Egeland said. "I think its such an amazing accomplishment for our little school. It shows you how determined these students really were."
But most of the students did not do it only for themselves.
"I predicated in the Study Island contest because I wanted to try for my teacher Mrs. Egeland and to help set a goal for my school," student Hunter Lash said.
"What these students did was nothing short of incredible," DeMaro said. "They didn't have to do this. It was all volunteer. They did this for themselves, for their teacher and for their school."
by Marilyn Forbes
Last Modified: May 11, 2012 02:00AM
Copyright © 2012 — TribLIVE.com
More Awards for Archipelago Learning's Study Island and Reading Eggs products!
We are pleased to announce that Archipelago Learning has recently won two 2012 Best Education Software Awards (BESSIEs). Study Island was recognized with a BESSIE Award for “Best Lesson Planning” (upper elementary), and Reading Eggs was recognized with a BESSIE Award for the “Best Early Learning Website”. The 18th Annual BESSIE Awards targeted innovative and content-rich programs and websites that provide parents and teachers with the technology to foster educational excellence.
Study Island was also just awarded a 2012 CODiE Award for “Best Assessment Solution”. The CODiE Awards were presented by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), and recognizes outstanding products and services in education technology.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Language Demands to Grow for ELLs Under New Standards
From: EDUCATION WEEK April 24, 2012 By Lesli A. Maxwell
Putting the common-core standards into practice in classrooms is a monumental change for teachers in the nation's public schools, but for educators who work with English-language learners, the shifts in instruction are expected to be even more groundbreaking.
That's because the new academic expectations for English/language arts and mathematics now adopted by all but four states require much more sophisticated uses of language than the mishmash of standards that have been in use for years across the states, say language-acquisition experts.
Grammar and vocabulary, for example, are often the primary focus of instruction for English-learners, as is teaching students to master certain language functions, such as suggesting or complimenting. Under the standards developed through the Common Core State Standards Initiative, however, instruction for English-learners will have to move far beyond those fundamental components of learning the language to include instruction on how to read and comprehend complex texts and to construct and convey arguments in writing across the content areas.
"For the most part, the profession has focused on bits and pieces of language," said Aída Walqui, the director of teacher professional-development programs for WestEd, a San Francisco-based education research firm. "The common core is really going to require teachers to move from understanding language as form or function to understanding it as activity and giving students the supports they need to participate in academic activities using language.
"Vocabulary and grammar are still important, but at a lower level of importance," she added. "That's going to be a momentous change."
This work will no longer be just the province of English-as-a-second-language teachers. The common core demands that teachers across all content areas teach literacy skills and the so-called "academic language" that is at the heart of their area of expertise.
As some states and districts—such as the Miami-Dade County school system in Florida, where 58,000 students are English-learners—push ahead on an early timeline with turning the standards into actual classroom instruction, language scholars, policymakers, advocates, and educators around the country continue to wrestle with important questions about how the language needs of English-learners will be met under the more-rigorous standards. A number of small- and large-scale efforts are taking shape to develop tools, resources, and instructional supports to help ensure that English-learners—the fastest-growing subgroup of students in the nation—will have the same access to the rigorous instructional levels of the common core as their peers who are native English speakers.
'Academic' vs. Everyday
Helping English-learners surmount the higher expectations of the common standards will depend largely on how well teachers get them to understand academic language, in contrast to the informal, everyday English they use outside the classroom.
One of the most far-reaching efforts under way to help teachers in that vein is a project led by the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment consortium, a group of 27 states that currently share a common set of English-language-proficiency standards. Using broad input from member states, language experts at WIDA are working to finalize a new edition of the consortium's five English-language-development standards that will show clearly the connections between the content standards of the common core across every grade level and the academic language that will be necessary to teach across the varying levels of English proficiency.
For example, in 1st grade, the common core calls for pupils to "write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide some sense of closure." The WIDA edition clearly spells out the grade-level vocabulary words and expressions that teachers should use—such as fact, paragraph, topic sentence, main idea, detail—while teaching that writing standard to students at all levels of English development. The WIDA edition also offers example topics that are pulled directly from a content standard in the common core and provide teachers with the types of support and scaffolding of academic language that they need depending on students' proficiency.
The new edition is also more explicit in showing teachers the cognitive demands required of the core-content standards and how to adjust instruction in line with English proficiency.
"I am hoping that teachers can see how to differentiate their instruction, so that even if you are a level-one English-learner, your teacher is going to have the tools to help you access the content even though you don't have much English," said Margo Gottlieb, WIDA's lead developer of common assessments for English-learners.
The final version of WIDA's English-language-development standards should be published by June, and, starting in late summer, the group will hold four regional conferences around the country to provide training to teachers and school administrators on the new edition and its connections to the common standards.
WIDA is also leading the effort of a group of 28 states to design new assessments of English-language proficiency that will measure the language demands of the common standards.
Readying Exemplars
Another major initiative unfolding to craft an array of free instructional resources for teachers of English-learners is centered at Stanford University, where Kenji Hakuta, an education professor and an expert on English-learners, is co-chairing a project with María Santos, a former director of English-learner programs for the New York City school system, that will map out the English-language demands of the common standards. Ms. Walqui of WestEd is also on that team of experts.
Earlier this month, the team launched its Understanding Language website with a dozen papers related to the common core and ELLs, along with a collection of practice and policy briefs that will address key issues.
The project is well-funded, with separate, $1 million grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (Both foundations also support some areas of coverage in Education Week.)
Ms. Walqui said the group is hard at work devising "exemplars" to demonstrate to teachers what planning a unit for ELLs under the common core would look like. The first exemplar, she said, is scheduled to come out in June and will focus on middle school English/language arts, because "it's a critical transition point for English-learners."
The key for lesson planning is that the goals for students must be the same, Ms. Walqui said, but that there are multiple pathways for students of varying developmental levels of English to achieve the goals.
"The differentiation is within the activities or versions of the activities for students," she said.
As the team publishes its exemplars, it will host webinars to train teachers, Ms. Walqui said.
The Council of the Great City Schools—which represents 67 urban school systems that are home to 30 percent of the nation's English-learners—is involved in a multitude of initiatives to help its member districts implement the common standards as thoughtfully and carefully for ELLs as they do for students who are not learning English. The rigor of the common core is also providing a prime opportunity for some districts to improve their services for English-learners, said Gabriela Uro, the manager of English-language-learner policy and research for the Washington-based council.
"The English-language-learner programs in many of our districts need ramping up anyway, and now they understand that if you are going to improve those programs, you needn't bother improving to the current standard," Ms. Uro said. "You need to design it for the common core."
For nearly two years, the council has offered sessions on the common core during the regular meetings Ms. Uro conducts with district directors of English-learner programs. Part of that has included bringing in language-acquisition experts to explain the implications of the new standards for ELLs and to show explicitly, for example, how to teach complex texts to English-learners.
The council is also coordinating a project to help districts provide information to parents of ELLs by writing guides on the new standards in Spanish, Chinese, and up to eight additional languages that are represented in urban school systems.
Ms. Uro is also serving on the steering committee of the Stanford project to keep "the district perspective in the mix and to make sure that we bring all of this down to a greater applicability at the district level."
Districts Adapt
In the 345,000-student Miami-Dade school system, teachers and school administrators are largely forging ahead on their own to adapt the new standards for English-learners, said Karen Spigler, the administrative director of language arts/reading and bilingual education/world languages for the district. This year, the common-core standards are already implemented in kindergarten and 1st grade, with 2nd and 3rd grades on tap to begin in the fall, she said.
The district offered teams of teachers in those early grades a two-day training to focus on how to bridge instruction—especially in reading—from the state standards they have been using to the common core, Ms. Spigler said.
A major component of that training, she said, was explaining to teachers how they must incorporate more nonfiction into the curriculum and how to figure out ways to judge the complexity of those texts for students.
"Our early-grade teachers think about children reading 'stories,' but we have to shift our thinking to how do we prepare them to read a science piece or something about the environment," she said.
Another big shift for teachers—especially those working with ELLs—will be letting students struggle with difficult texts.
"That's huge," Ms. Spigler said. "We have been very focused on making everything readable for kids, and they haven't been as successful in independently reading difficult texts."
The vast majority of English-learners in public schools are native Spanish-speakers. That reality has led to at least one large-scale, formal undertaking to translate the common standards into Spanish and provide "linguistic augmentation" to account for the differences between the two languages when necessary.
Called Common Core en Español, the project is being led by ELL practitioners in San Diego, in collaboration with San Diego State University, the California education department, and the Council of Chief State School Officers.
"We are staying very aligned with the common core. It's the same content," said Silvia C. Dorta-Duque de Reyes, a bilingual-services coordinator in the San Diego County office of education. "But because of the challenges that English-learners face in accessing academic content as they learn the language, one of the ways to differentiate for them is to provide the access through their primary language."
The content standards have already been translated, Ms. Reyes said, and now the team is in the midst of providing the "augmentation" to show, for example, that in Spanish, students must learn accentuation and accent rules.
After a peer-review process over the summer, the goal is to publish the translations and make them available to all states and school districts by the end of the year, she said.
Ms. Reyes is also serving on a key panel of experts in California who are charged with revising the state's English-language-development standards so that they are in line with the common core. And she is providing professional-development seminars to school administrators and leaders to help them prepare for implementation in another year or so.
Many frontline teachers in California, however, aren't at the point of being trained for the shift to the common core. The new assessments for common core will roll out during the 2014-2015 school year.
"These teachers are still being held accountable for results on the [state test]," Ms. Reyes said.
Vol. 31, Issue 29, Pages s34,s36,s37,s38
Friday, April 20, 2012
Resources Explain Assessment/Accountability Model
Lisa Gross, Kentucky Department of Education
FRANKFORT, KY (4/17/12) – The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has developed resources to help explain the state’s new assessment and accountability model for public schools.
KDE has dedicated a page on its website to the Unbridled Learning: College/Career Readiness for All model, which was developed in response to the mandates of 2009’s Senate Bill 1. The page is accessible by clicking the Unbridled Learning icon on the KDE homepage or by Clicking Here.
Items posted on the page include two brochures – one on assessment, another on accountability – aimed at parents, but also intended for a general audience. Those brochures are posted near the bottom of the page, in two formats (a printable brochure layout and a text version).
Another posted item called Unbridled Learning Summary provides a graphic representation of the way the new accountability model will impact schools and districts.
Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday explains the new accountability model in a videotaped presentation, also now available. The presentation may be accessed at by Clicking Here.
The Unbridled Learning accountability model will be applied for the first time to test scores and other data from the current school year. This month, public school students begin taking the new Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (K-PREP) tests in reading, mathematics, science, social studies and writing. Students also have participated in end-of-course assessments in specific subjects at the high school level. Scores from these tests, along with data on closing achievement gaps, student academic growth, graduation rates and college/career readiness, will be used to determine school and district accountability designations.
Those designations will be announced in the fall. In February 2012, the U.S. Department of Education approved Kentucky’s application to use the Unbridled Learning model to provide both state and federal accountability designations for public schools and districts. In Kentucky, these designations will replace the two-tiered accountability system that was in place since the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in 2001.
Archipelago Learning Releases Teacher Toolkit for Study Island
- Traditional assessments and interactive games based on individual state standards;
- Immediate feedback and automated instruction;
- Real-time progress reports;
- Rotating positions for multiple choice answers;
- Customizable and printable worksheets;
- The ability to log in from anywhere;
- Digital writing portfolios;
- College and career readiness tools; and
- Parent notification system.
Friday, March 23, 2012
A Review of Reading Eggs
[Reading Eggs was featured in a review in About.com. In the feature, Reading Eggs received five out of five stars]
A Review of Reading Eggs
Overview
Reading Eggs is an interactive online program intended for children ages 4-8 and designed to teach children how to read or to build on existing reading skills. The program was originally developed in Australia by Blake Publishing, but brought to schools in the United States by the same company that developed Study Island, Archipelago Learning. The premise behind Reading Eggs is to engage students in a fun, interactive program that initially builds a foundation for learning to read and eventually guides them towards reading to learn.
The lessons found in Reading Eggs are designed to tie into the five pillars of reading instruction. The five pillars of reading instruction include phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Each of these components is necessary for children to master if they are going to be expert readers. Reading Eggs provides an alternative avenue for students to master these concepts. This program is not intended to replace traditional classroom instruction, instead it is a supplemental tool in which students can hone and build the skills which they are being taught at school.
There are 120 total lessons found in the Reading Eggs program. Each lesson builds on a concept taught in the previous lesson. Each lesson has between six and ten activities that students will complete to master the overall lesson.
Lessons 1-40 are designed for students who have very little reading skills. Children will learn their first reading skills at this level including sounds and names of the alphabet letters, reading sight words, and learning essential phonics skills. Lessons 41-80 will build on those skills previously learned. Children will learn more high frequency sight words, build word families, and read both fiction and nonfiction books designed to build their vocabulary. Lessons 81-120 continue to build on previous skills and will provide activities for children to read for meaning, comprehension, and to continue to increase vocabulary.
Key Components
Reading Eggs is Teacher/Parent Friendly
• Reading Eggs is easy to add a single student or a whole class.
• Reading Eggs has terrific reporting that makes it easy to monitor individual student or whole class progress.
• Reading Eggs provides teachers with a downloadable letter to send home to parents. The letter explains what Reading Eggs is and provides login information for students to work on the program at home at no additional cost. It also provides parents with the opportunity to have an account to track their child’s progress at no additional cost.
• Reading Eggs provides teachers with a comprehensive user guide as well as toolkit loaded with books, lesson plans, resources, and activities. The teacher toolkit has several books and activities that they can use in conjunction with their Smart Board to interactively teach lessons to the whole class.
Reading Eggs is Instructional with Diagnostic Components
• Reading Eggs provides teachers and parents with the opportunity to assign specific lessons to students. For example if a kindergarten teacher is teaching the letter “K”, the teacher can go in and assign the lesson over the letter “K” to all of the students to reinforce that concept.
• Reading Eggs also provides teachers and parents with the option of giving each child a diagnostic placement test. This test consists of forty questions. When the child misses three questions, then the program assigns them to the appropriate lesson that corresponds to how they did on the placement test. This allows students to skip past concepts which they have already mastered and places them at the level in the program where they should be.
• Reading Eggs allows teachers and parents to reset a student’s progress at any time in the program.
Reading Eggs is Fun & Interactive
• Reading Eggs has kid friendly themes, animations, and songs.
• Reading Eggs allows users to create and personalize their own unique avatar.
• Reading Eggs provides users with motivation by providing incentives and rewards. Each time they complete an activity, they are rewarded with golden eggs. Their eggs are kept in their “eggy bank” which they can use to buy reward games, clothes for their avatar, or accessories for their house. In addition, when a user completes a lesson they earn an animated “critter”, which they collect as they go through the program.
• Reading Egg lessons are set up similar to a board game where you move from stepping stone to another by completing an activity. Once you have completed each activity, then you have completed that lesson and get to move on to the next lesson.
Reading Eggs is Comprehensive
• Reading Eggs has hundreds of extra learning activities and games aside from those in the standard 120 reading lessons.
• The Playroom is loaded with over 120 learning activities covering a wide range of topics ranging from letter reinforcement to art.
• My World allows students to visit eight destinations loaded with fun, interactive activities.
• Story Factory allows students to write and build their own stories and then enter them into a weekly story writing competition.
• Puzzle Park gives students a chance to earn some more Golden Eggs by completing word puzzles and practicing sight word recognition.
• The Arcade is place where students can use their earned Golden Eggs to play many fun, interactive reading games.
• Driving Tests contains assessments covering sights words, phonics skills, and content area vocabulary. If a student satisfactorily completes a test, they are rewarded a racing car game which they can play to earn more golden eggs.
• Skills Bank is designed to build a student’s skills in spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation.
• Music Café allows students to access and play their favorite songs that hear within a lesson.
Reading Eggs is Structured
• Reading Eggs provides students with a comprehensive dashboard located on the left of their screen. This dashboard keeps track of which lesson they are on, how many golden eggs they have earned, and allows them access to their stuff and all the other places they can go within the program.
• Reading Eggs forces students into order by padlocking activities. You must complete activity one to open activity two.
• Reading Eggs also locks components such as My World, Puzzle Park, the Arcade, Driving Tests, & Skills Bank until a user has mastered the appropriate number of lessons to have developed the skills necessary to use those components.
Cost
Parents can purchase a one year subscription to Reading Eggs for $75.00 and a 6 month subscription for $49.95. They also have the option to purchase a monthly subscription at $9.95 per month.
Schools can purchase annual classroom subscriptions for 1-35 students for $269, 36-70 students for $509, 71-105 students for $749, 106-140 students for $979, 141-175 students for $1,199, 176-245 students for $1,659, 246-355 students for $1,979, 356-500 students for $2,139, 501-750 students for $3000, and 750+ students will cost $4 per student.
Research
Reading Eggs has been has been proven to be an effective tool for children to learn how to read. A study was conducted in 2010 that paralleled the features and components of the Reading Eggs program to essential elements that students must comprehend and possess to be able to read. Reading Eggs uses a variety of effective, research-based learning activities that motivate students to successfully complete the program. The web-based design features those components that have been proven to be highly effective in getting children to be high functioning readers.
Overall
Reading Eggs is an exceptional early literacy program that I highly recommend to parents of young children as well as schools and classroom teachers. Children love using technology and they love to get rewards and this program combines both of them effectively. In addition, the research based program successfully incorporates the five pillars of reading within their lessons which is essentially why I believe that this program does teach children to read. Initially I was concerned because I thought that young children may be overwhelmed by the program, but the tutorial in the help section was terrific. Overall, I give Reading Eggs five out of five stars, because I believe it is a wonderful teaching tool that children will want to spend hours using.
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