"To the Lords and Ladies of Study Island"

H.L. Brockett Elementary School in Aubrey, TX has used Study Island for grades 2 – 5 for several years now. In the initial year of use, the technology teacher partnered with classroom teachers to provide a prize drawing for digital cameras, MP3 players, flash drives, and more. Students received entries into the drawing for completing Blue Ribbons for all topics in a section. Wildly successful, students began to crave more.



Enter the Study Island Royalty Wall-of-Fame. Students who completed all topics in a section in Blue Ribbon fashion were photographed wearing a crown, and the pictures were displayed in the hallway for all of the “subjects” to see! The students loved the photographic pat on the back, with many students spending hours over the weekends and during school vacation days perfecting their Study Island skills.
As an added bonus, students who achieved “king or queen” status were given special invitations to a “Study Island Royalty Party” at the end of the year. The festivities included food, beverages, lively music, and the high-light of the afternoon – 100 feet of bubble wrap! Each student was allowed to make one pass across the popping-pathway on a tricycle, as those awaiting a turn cheered them on from the sidelines!
Not to be outdone, Mr. David Cox, the technology teacher and champion of Study Island is adding a live band to this year’s “Royalty Ball”. Students from Brockett are averaging well over 10,000 questions answered every week, and teachers have embraced the powerful re-teaching and skill strengthen impact that Study Island has on all of the kids, regardless of grade level. As a result of the amazing results that Brockett, and sister campus J.A. Monaco Elementary have seen since introducing Study Island, Aubrey ISD has recently extended the program to include implementing Study Island through middle school and high school!
Please consider the innovative and creative efforts of Mr. David Cox and the Brockett teaching staff when searching for great success stories for future use. To contact Mr. Cox, please e-mail at dcox@aubreyisd.net
Thank You,
Ron Gregory
Monaco Elementary
Aubrey ISD

"Study Island is one of the most innovative programs in use at Immaculate Conception."

Immaculate Conception lays foundation for academics



TimesReporter.com staff report   Posted Jan 29, 2012 @ 11:54 PM


Immaculate Conception is moving forward, educating students in mind, body, and spirit. The students at Immaculate Conception develop an appreciation and understanding of the faith, plus a solid foundation in academics.


Academically, Immaculate Conception students continue to perform to high expectations, averaging from the 80th to 99th percentile on all parts of the “Terra Nova,” a national normed standardized test.


While the faculty believes that this is an indication that teaching and curriculum are sound, they remain committed to continuous improvement. Data reports from the Terra Nova test are used to determine any areas in the curriculum that need to be strengthened.


Principal Anthony Amicone said he is pleased with the school’s educational technology program.


“The school has burst into 21st century technology in education arena,” he said.


Currently in use in the classrooms are Smart Boards, Acer laptop computers, a new computer lab consisting of workstations, and Apple I Pads.


These technological devices are being incorporated into daily instruction to enhance the delivery of the Core Standards in all subject areas. Students are exhibiting a new enthusiasm for learning and are taking a more active part in that learning.


Study Island is one of the most innovative programs in use at Immaculate Conception. Study Island is a web-based software program for students beginning in the third grade, used to assess students’ mastery of concepts in the core subject areas. Since it is web based, students can access their accounts from home and get their homework. The work can be individually tailored to meet students’ needs and abilities and many different reports can be generated to assess student progress.


Reading Eggs is in use with kindergarten, first- and second-graders. With this program, teachers have observed a tremendous surge of enthusiasm and marked gains in reading skills. Parents of students in those grades have indicated that students are enthusiastically pursuing their schoolwork at home. he school’s technology plan seeks to provide even greater access to technology.


Creativity is essential to the development of the child as a well-rounded person. Various art and music activities are provided to the students to foster that creativity. Students have many opportunities within the curriculum at Immaculate Conception to develop their musical and artistic talents. Singing in the church junior choir allows them to use the voice to praise God.


Service to others is a very important aspect faith-based education at Immaculate Conception. Students participate in service programs such as providing canned goods for the food pantry, volunteerism in the community during events, and assisting the elderly.


The teaching staff of Immaculate Conception continues to develop new and innovative ways to teach the core standards. They are actively engaged in various religious and academic professional development programs and classes.


“Small class sizes, dedicated and highly qualified teachers, teaching and reinforcement of faith based morals and behavior, a safe and clean environment, and superior standardized test performance all make Immaculate Conception a premier educational institution,” Amicone said.

“The research has shown that the districts that are using the Study Island and the Reading Eggs are the districts that have greater success ...

This article was posted February 1, 2012 and is from the "Independent" [Greater  Media Newspapers - A Group of Ten Community Newspapers Serving Monmouth and Middlesex Counties]


Mat-AB BOE sets 2012-13 district goals


Increases in literacy, morale, nontax revenues, graduation rate targeted



BY NICOLE ANTONUCCI, Staff Writer


The Matawan-Aberdeen School District will focus on increasing student performance and morale and reducing spending for the 2012-2013 school year.


During the Jan. 23 Board of Education meeting, board President Charles Kenny highlighted the district’s top four goals for this academic year.


“These goals are very demanding and they will be hard to achieve,” Kenny said. “The nuts and bolts of how this would be achieved is a fluid process and it is a process the administration is charged with.”


According to Kenny, the board held a special meeting on Nov. 20 to prioritize goals for the coming year.


“There are many goals that the board wants to achieve, but these were the goals that we thought were important,” he said.


Superintendent David Healy explained that the administration has already begun to implement various measures to make the goals more attainable.


The first goal is to reduce the non-proficiency rate on the statewide NJ ASK test in reading among third-grade students by 15 percent.


Upon coming to the district, Healy learned some students, particularly in third grade, weren’t meeting the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) benchmark in language arts on the NJ ASK test.


“Having worked in Middletown, being closely involved in a lot of literacy initiatives in Middletown and seeing that success, the most important thing was analyzing the data and knowing what to do with the data,” he said.


Based on the data, different tools are being used, including guided reading for grades 3 to 5 as well as training for teachers.


A portion of the $584,217 in additional 2011 state aid was used to provide classroom libraries with level readers for classroom instruction, Healy said.


He added that a recently added Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) tool would assess progress three times a year.


“It gives us an indication of how students are progressing in the area of language arts literacy, and based on that information, we create strategies toward really addressing what the data provides to us,” Healy said.


“Depending on where the students are or how well they do on the assessment, we either continue to provide the whole-group instruction, small-group instruction, or one-on-one instruction, with the goal to bring every student to at least grade level or above.”


In addition, monies were allocated from No Child Left Behind funds to conduct a language arts literacy summer school for students exiting first through fifth grades who are two grade levels or more behind on the DRA.


The idea, Healy explained, is for those students who are falling behind to attend summer school so they can improve reading grade level.


Students are also utilizing Study Island (grades 3-12) and Reading Eggs (grades K-2), two Web-based programs that follow the core curriculum content standards and directly correlate to the NJ ASK. “The research has shown that the districts that are using the Study Island and the Reading Eggs are the districts that have greater success on the NJASK and some of those other assessments,” Healy said.


Healy said the focus is on early childhood literacy since it can ultimately impact areas such as science, social studies and math literacy.


He added that if students progress in literacy, it could help decrease the need for additional special programs.


“It reduces the need for things like resource room, it reduces the need for basic skills, and we will see a reduction in the classification of students for reading disabilities.


“Oftentimes when we classify students for reading disability it’s not because they can’t read, it’s because they never learned how to read properly,” he said.


The second goal is to prepare an annual budget with a tax levy increase that does not exceed 1.5 percent from the prior year without any reduction in programs.


To do this, the administration plans to improve operational efficiency and to increase nontax based revenue.


“[We are looking at] our use of custodial overtime, we are looking at the utilization of the utilities and how they can be better addressed such as more energy-efficient systems, replacing some of our boilers with more efficient systems,” Healy said.


He said the district could also save money by bringing out-of-district students back to the district.


“When we bring students back to the district, we are bringing them to a program that is equal to, if not better than, the program they are currently in. That is a more efficient way of managing our students that are currently out-of-district placements,” Healy said.


“That can be a tremendous cost savings to the district and we can utilize that money to enhance our programs to benefit those students.”


The district also will identify revenue sources that are not based on taxes, Healy said, including studying how facilities can be used by outside organizations.


“Although we believe that we should provide a service to the community in terms of our facilities we want to make sure the district is appropriately compensated for the use of those facilities,” Healy said.


He added that the state has also approved advertisements on district-operated school buses.


“That can be a pretty solid revenue source when you consider that our buses run all day long between the school programs, our preschool programs, our athletic programs, our summer programs. It is a great opportunity for our district to use the buses to advertise.”


The third goal is to enhance the morale for students and staff by decreasing districtwide suspensions by 10 percent and decreasing district-wide violence and vandalism incidents by 10 percent.


“We have been addressing the problems and not necessarily the symptoms,” Healy said, adding that early intervention is needed.


“We have developed a partnership with CPC Behavioral Healthcare where students are referred and behavioral plans are put into place, creating positive behavioral support systems,” Healy said.


He said that supervision in school hallways and cafeterias has been increased to address problems that may be happening between classes.


“It comes down to good building management and having the team approach from the teachers and administrators to the students all working together. It is very important to have a positive, nurturing environment in our buildings.”


Finally, the district plans to reduce the number of high school seniors taking the Alternative High School Assessment (ASHA) by 25 percent.


When students do not pass the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA), a requirement for graduation, they have the option of taking the ASHA, Healy said.


To reduce the number of students taking the ASHA, Healy said HSPA preparation would be increased.


Healy said that while the district will work to attain the four goals recognized as priorities, there are about 50 other goals that have been identified.


“We believe,” Healy said, “we are going to meet the challenge.”

Archipelago Learning's Study Island Receives eSchool Media's 2012 Readers' Choice Award in the K-12 Category

By Calvin Azuri, TMCnet Contributor

Archipelago Learning’s Study Island is the winner of eSchool Media’s 2012 Readers’ Choice Award in the K-12 category. Study Island is a program that functions as an Internet-based medium of instruction grounded in individual state testing standards.

From all across North America, educators and administrators nominate their favorite educational technology products or services. In all, almost 1,400 nominations were received. Each of the prize-winning products and/or services was placed into one of three categories: K-12, Higher Education and Honorable Mention.

In release, Tim McEwen, President and CEO of Archipelago Learning, said, “The Study Island team is thrilled to receive this validation from our customers. We work hard to ensure a fun and engaging experience for students and provide the tools necessary for teachers to meet their yearly goals. It’s wonderful to be recognized by the people who use our products on a daily basis.”

eSchool Media publishes eSchool News, eCampus News and eClassroom News are and the 2012 Readers' Choice Awards Report was featured in January issues of each of these three publications. This report is also available on each of the eSchool Media publication websites. This special supplement is a complete showcase on the prize winning products and their services. It also includes viewpoints from readers as well as visitors on why each entry deserves a mention.

Archipelago Learning is a subscription-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider in the field of education products. Their products are utilized by more than 14 million students in approximately 37,600 schools based in the USA, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Study Island is a digital supplemental solution that works as a support system to help K-12 students gain mastery over their grade-level academic standards in a fun way.

A Primer on the Common Assessments

The following article is about a Webinar I participated in and comes from Curriculum Matters and was Posted: 30 Nov 2011 12:42 PM PST

It would be quite an understatement to say that there is intense interest in the common assessments.

Judging by the outpouring of participation and questions we had for our webinar on the topic yesterday, people in the edusphere are craving a whole lot of information that isn't really available yet and are anxious about the many unresolved questions. That makes sense, of course, given the stakes that will be riding on the tests when they become available in 2014.

The presenters were Laura Slover and Joe Willhoft, leaders of the two assessment consortia, PARCC and SMARTER Balanced, respectively. They walked participants through the basics of their test-design ideas and reported on where the projects stand and what we can expect in the months ahead. (The webinar and accompanying Power Point presentations are available on a special page of our website. You'll see that if you were a registered participant in the webinar, you have to log in to see the archived webinar. If you didn't register, you have to do so in order to see the archived presentation.)

In the hour we had, we were able to ask Willhoft and Slover only a small fraction of the questions that inundated us before and during the webinar. A sampling of the questions, though, offers interesting insights into what's on people's minds, and the broad range of people who are watching this work very keenly.

Among those listening in yesterday were curriculum, assessment, technology, and content-area specialists from school districts and state education departments; superintendents, principals and classroom teachers; representatives of major education publishing and testing companies; folks from a wide range of advocacy groups; college professors and high-ranking university administrators.

There were long-range policy questions (How will the consortia be funded once the $360 million in Race to the Top funds runs out?) and nitty-gritty implementation questions (Can calculators be used for the PARCC math assessment? What are the plans for essay scoring?).

There were questions that suggested a need for clarification of the assessment dialogue itself, such as this one from an assistant superintendent in a school district: "Is the term 'interim' synonymous with 'benchmark'?" And this one: "What is the difference between formative assessment and classroom instruction?"

Unusually large numbers of questions fell into several key areas, though. One was how the new assessments will be accessible to students with disabilities and those learning English. Another was a vein of concern about districts' and schools' technological capacity to move to large-scale online assessment.

Yet another probed the question of comparability: With two assessment systems, will you really be able to compare the performance of students in a PARCC state with that of students in a SMARTER Balanced state? Another cluster of questions sought clarification of how the tests will be used by higher education: Will they be used for admission? What about for course-placement purposes?

Answers to these buckets of questions are worth listening to for yourselves; some are more nuanced than others, and all are clearly influenced by the early stage of the work.

Another bucket of questions focused, of course, on concrete details about the tests themselves (When will we be able to see prototype test items? When will the test blueprints be available?). The consortia's timelines offered some answers there. But clearly, folks are anxious for far more concrete information than what is currently available. We'll do our best to bring that to you as we get it. But that gap between standards and assessments is not a comfortable place for states, districts, schools, and teachers to find themselves.

- Catherine Gewertz