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Showing posts with tag assessments Show all posts >
60% of Middle and High School Learners Exceed FCAT Annual Learning Gain Expectations
- October 18, 2011 by Melissa Agocs
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Marion County Public Schools in Ocala, FL, wanted to evaluate the effects of the Fast ForWord® and Reading Assistant™ products on the academic achievement of their students. Students in Florida are assessed with the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test, abbreviated as the FCAT. The students in this study were initially at FCAT Level 1 or 2, where Level 3 means performing on grade level and Level 5 means the student is successful with the most challenging grade-level content. These study participants attended middle and high schools in the Marion County Public Schools and most of them were eligible for Exceptional Student Education services.
Each spring, all Marion County students in Grades 3-10 take the FCAT. This is a criterion-referenced test. The Reading portion of the FCAT is designed to assess student achievement of the high-order cognitive skills represented in the Sunshine State Standards.
One way for students at FCAT Levels 1 and 2 to meet their Annual Learning Gains (ALG), a component in determining a school’s grade, is for them to improve their scores by more than a state-mandated level that varies depending on grade level. Across the students in this study, in order to meet Annual Learning Gains, the students had to improve at least 115 points.
After using Fast ForWord and Reading Assistant products, 60% of the participants made ALG with the actual improvement of 173 points, on average, exceeding the expected gain of 115 points by a statistically significant amount.
Related Reading:
Longitudinal Study Shows Significant Fast ForWord® Gains Endure Over Time
Fast ForWord® Language Series Has Greatest Impact of Any Intervention Listed by NCRTI
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Categories: Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning, Reading Assistant, Scientific Learning Research
Reading in the Real World
- July 26, 2011 by Corey Fitzgerald
Reading is an active and complex task that requires the brain to use a multitude of cognitive skills and mental processes to develop meaning and comprehension from written text. Being able to read high-level text independently and fluently is essential for high achievement, not only in academia but also in the workplace and through numerous life tasks. However there is a serious gap between many high school seniors’ reading ability and the reading requirements they face after graduation.
Consider the chart below. The Lexile Measure for reading level of high school literature and textbooks falls short of the level typical of college, military and workplace material. And when you take into consideration the reading level of most standardized assessments for high school students, a Lexile range of 1000-1100, the gap becomes even more evident. Simply put, students are leaving high school with limited exposure to higher-level text and contact with reading standards and assessments that don’t adequately align to meet the real world conditions they’ll be confronted with.
Research conducted by ACT’s College Readiness Benchmark for Reading indicates that just over half of our nation’s students who are on a college preparatory track are able to meet the demands and rigor of postsecondary and workplace requirements. And if that isn’t daunting enough, data from the most recent reading assessment conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reveals that only 38% of high school seniors tested at or above proficiency for 12th grade standards. This bodes ill for the ability of Americans to meet the demands and challenges of a highly competitive global marketplace and begs the question, “Why aren’t our schools’ reading standards higher?”
Studies show that aligning high school standards to college and workplace expectations is a critical step toward giving students a solid foundation in the academic, social and workplace skills needed for success in a postsecondary education or career. The American Diploma Project has found that there is a common core of knowledge and skills, particularly in English and math, that students must master to be prepared for both postsecondary education and well-paying jobs. The research shows that there is a strong correlation between scores in high school math and English and wages earned once in the workplace. Students who are taking below-average or functional/basic classes increase their likelihood of being employed in a low-paid or low-skill job, compared to students in the top quartile who earn significantly more in the decade following high school than their ‘average’ or low performing peers.
As we seek to curtail the disparity between what’s taught in K-12 classrooms and what’s expected in the real world, it’s important that we coordinate with our local and national education and business leaders, help them to provide a cohesive approach to improve the rigors of academic coursework, promote relevant and innovative learning opportunities for all students, and share information and resources that advance the coordination across the K-12 and postsecondary sectors of our society. And by all means if you can read this, thank a teacher!
References:
Malbert Smith III, Ph.D. Bridging the Readiness Gap: Demystifying Required Reading Levels for Postsecondary Pursuits. Lexile.com.
Related Reading:
The Essential Nature of Developing Oral Reading Fluency
Adolescence: What’s the Brain Got to Do with It?
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Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning
Students Exceed State Average on TAKS after Fast ForWord, Maintain Gains
- April 20, 2011 by Melissa Agocs
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Since the 2004-2005 school year, the Dallas Independent School District has used the Fast ForWord products in many of their high schools. This multi-year study followed more than 500 high school students from 20 schools over the years of their Fast ForWord participation. This study shows impressive longitudinal results on the TAKS which is The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills which is administered annually throughout Texas and is closely aligned with the state curricular standards. A longitudinal study is a type of study that follows the same subjects over time.
Students started with the Fast ForWord Middle & High School product, now known as the Fast ForWord Literacy product. Many went on to use the Fast ForWord Language to Reading and Fast ForWord to Reading products. On average, students spent 60 days using the products during a 5 ½ month period.
The scores of Fast ForWord participants moved in step with the state average until the students started to use Fast ForWord products. During the year of Fast ForWord product use, the participants experienced accelerated learning that separated their performance from that of their peers. Even up to two years after they finished using the products, the Fast ForWord participants maintained their improvements. The TAKS gains made during the study were statistically larger for the Dallas Fast ForWord participants than the gains made by their statewide peers.
Related Reading:
After Just 24 Days, Summer School Students Significantly Improve Reading Scores
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Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning, Scientific Learning Research
Test Scores Exceed State Average in 4 Subject Areas After Fast ForWord
- February 15, 2011 by Andrew Ostarello
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St. Mary Parish began using Fast ForWord products in the 2006-2007 school year with eight elementary schools. Over the next few years they continually expanded until they had a full district implementation by 2009-2010. Overall, Fast ForWord and Reading Assistant products were used by almost 6,000 St. Mary Parish students by 2010.
This study investigates the changes during that time to the district’s performance on the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program, or LEAP for short. This test is given to 4th and 8th grade students. The following analyses consider four main subtests: English/Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, and Science.
After implementing Fast ForWord products, the St. Mary 4th grade passing rate for ELA converged upon, and then exceeded the state average. After Fast ForWord was introduced, the percentage of the district’s students passing the LEAP Math test increased dramatically. The 4th grade Science test exhibits the same trend as does the 4th grade Social Studies test.
The gap in passing rates between black and white students has also been reduced for both the elementary English and elementary Math LEAP tests. There has also been a longitudinal increase in the percentage of 4th graders meeting the overall promotion standard since Fast ForWord products were introduced - from 65% in 2006 to 85% in 2010.
Following Fast ForWord implementation, district LEAP performance approached and then exceeded the state average in all four subjects. The performance gap between black and white students closed significantly. And finally, the 4th grade promotion rates steadily increased.
For more information, please see the Educator Briefing on this study as well as any of our 200+ additional reports on Fast ForWord software results. If you have questions about any of our research studies, please contact us.
Related Reading:
Can Scientific Learning Products Improve School Test Scores?
Over 45% Relative Improvement in Students Reaching Proficiency
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Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning, Reading Assistant, Scientific Learning Research
Data Driven Decisions: A GPS Approach
- November 2, 2010 by Corey Fitzgerald
Technology offers us so many useful tools and strategies; it’s a wonder how we ever got along without them. Let’s consider the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) receiver and its remarkable ability to pinpoint our location anywhere on earth. Accurate to within one meter, a long step for most adults, and capable of tracking your route across any terrain, they rely on a continuous feed of real-time data that is accurate and reliable. As educators, can we apply concepts like these to the classroom to make better, faster and more accurate decisions about the learning landscape?
It’s a rhetorical question, and the resounding answer is Yes. However, there is room to argue that our current system leaves us falling perpetually short as educators are forced to wait weeks or months for standardized assessment results to flow back into their hands. The resonating concern is that this periodic data limits the ability to accurately address the underlying causes of failure in-step with the ongoing instruction. Corrective action must ensue, and initiatives to support a more timely return on the data must be put into place through a process with strategies to track the day to day activities and progress monitoring for all students.
Thankfully, some of these efforts are already underway, reflected in the nation’s focus to implement state-wide reform, with a priority being placed on Assessment and Standards. However, a paradigm still exists, in that benchmarking is limited to designated grade levels and the “in between years” are somewhat neglected, leaving variability and non-standardization to chance. So how does your state stack up? Visit the USDOE Institute of Education Sciences website, National Center for Education Statistics, and query the collection of data and reports to learn more: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/
Next steps: Plotting a course to data utopia.
Using cutting edge technology underpinned with neuroscience principles on how the brain learns, Scientific Learning has pioneered software that accelerates the acquisition of language and reading skills, yielding years of gain in a matter of weeks. Like a GPS, a continuous stream of real-time data provides accurate and reliable measures of student performance daily, plotting an ideal course of learning that eliminates the lag time of data collection and analysis. Furthermore, educators can weave this information back into the classroom immediately, and focus intently on the specific areas of need. In keeping sights set high on the destination—achievement for all students—there’s a proven way to deliver success where getting lost is not an option.
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Categories: Education Trends, Progress Tracker
How Can You Predict Student Reading Growth?
- October 15, 2010 by Andrew Ostarello
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In 2007, Scientific Learning introduced Reading Progress Indicator, or RPI for short. RPI is an individually administered, computer-based assessment for reading and language skills. We will review the key features of RPI, demonstrate its close relationship to a wide array of high-stakes reading tests, and show how it can be used to forecast future district reading success.
When we were building RPI, we wanted an assessment that would achieve the following four goals:
- Be an individually-administered computerized assessment.
- Be short and easy to administer. We wanted a test that took between 30 and 40 minutes to complete.
- Cover key reading and language skills: phonological awareness, decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension.
- Quickly and reliably detect improvements after using Fast ForWord products.
RPI achieves all four of these goals.
If we look at the academic calendar year, we can see that most state reading assessments happen once a year, in the spring. Though they are important for measuring student reading growth, they are infrequent.
RPI is a good supplement to the picture of student reading growth. With a pre-test in the fall, and subsequent tests after completing each product, teachers can get more information to answer critical instruction questions:
Who’s currently succeeding? Who’s on track with their reading growth? And finally, who’s likely to do well on the state reading assessment? Now, that third question can only be answered if RPI measures reading ability in a similar way to those state reading assessments. Does it?
It turns out it does align well with state reading assessments. Here’s an example from Florida. The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, has a developmental scale score which spans all grade levels. RPI correlates positively with this FCAT score. The data shows the correlation is 0.51. Of course, it’s not perfect, but 0.51 is a pretty strong correlation, and it suggests that RPI measures the same kinds of reading skills that the FCAT measures.
These results are not limited to Florida. Here are four more tests that have a strong positive correlation to RPI. The ITBS/ITED tests from Iowa and the ISTEP from Indiana – two more state reading assessments. The Gates-MacGinitie Reading test and the Woodcock-Johnson – both widely used supplemental reading assessments. All of these correlations are well over .5, and all are statistically significant.
So what can be done with these kinds of correlation data? Well, it’s important to realize just how rich this dataset is. We have matched data from over 25,000 RPI Users and data from over 12,000 students who took state assessments and used Fast ForWord products.
With strong correlations between the two, we can begin to predict student performance on state assessments by looking at the trends in a student’s RPI scores. Not perfect predictions, of course, but we can build reasonably accurate mathematical models of student growth for a variety of states.
One application of these models is the Reading Proficiency Growth Calculator.
This tool allows districts to input simple summary numbers, such as the number of students in the district and the percentage of those students reading proficiently at grade level and see what kinds of reading gains are possible for their students under a district-wide implementation of Scientific Learning’s Fast ForWord® and Reading Assistant™ products.
All of this is possible because of the mathematical models that carefully align RPI to state reading tests.
If you’re interested in exploring what these models forecast for your district, the Reading Proficiency Growth Calculator is available online at www.scilearn.com/RPGC.
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Categories: Fast ForWord, Reading Assistant, Scientific Learning Research
40% of Non-Proficient Students Reach Reading Proficiency in One Year with Fast ForWord
- September 14, 2010 by Melissa Agocs
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Every spring, the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, abbreviated CRCT, are administered to students in Georgia. The CRCT is designed to measure how well students acquire the skills and knowledge described in the Georgia Performance Standards. Students are tested in Reading, English Language Arts and Mathematics. This summary will concentrate on the Reading results. It is given every spring to all students in grades 1-8 and the students included in this study were first through eighth graders.
Students who used the Fast ForWord products generally started with the Fast ForWord Language or Fast ForWord Literacy products. In Clarke County School District in Georgia, during the 2007 – 2008 school year, a group of students started on the Fast ForWord Reading products, progressing as far as the Fast ForWord Reading Level 3 product. On average, students used the products for 60 – 70 days during a 6 month period.
A longitudinal study is a type of study that follows the same subjects over time. A longitudinal analysis may include baseline performance for a period before the intervention, as well as performance changes during the intervention period. It may also include follow up performance data, showing whether performance drops, is maintained at the new level, or continues to improve, when participants are no longer receiving the intervention.
The first wave of Fast ForWord participants at Clarke County started using the products between the 2006 and 2007 tests and made statistically significant improvements on the spring 2007 CRCT with continued improvements in 2008.
Students in the second wave started using the products between the 2007 and 2008 tests and made statistically significant improvements on the spring 2008 CRCT.
The third group served as the comparison group and did not use the products until after the 2008 test. The students who used the Fast ForWord products made more improvements in their reading achievement, crossing the proficiency threshold, compared to the students who did not use the products. In fact, 40% of the participants who were not proficient in 2006 reached proficiency in 2007 compared to 27% of the non-proficient students who did not use products.
For more information, please see the Educator Briefing and Full Report on this study as well as any of our 200+ additional reports on Fast ForWord results. If you have questions about any of our research studies, please contact us
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Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, Fast ForWord, Reading & Learning, Scientific Learning Research
79% of ELL Students Increase Proficiency by One or More Levels
- September 2, 2010 by Melissa Agocs
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During the 2008 – 2009 school year, a group of kindergarten through sixth-grade students used the Fast ForWord® products. All participants were English language learners.
Participants used products from both the Fast ForWord Language and Fast ForWord Reading series. Kindergartners typically started with the Fast ForWord Language Basics product and then progressed through Fast ForWord Reading Prep and Fast ForWord Reading Level 1 while students in first grade and above started with the Fast ForWord Language product, and then progressed through Fast ForWord Language to Reading followed by the Reading product. On average, students used the products for 54 days across a 3½ month period.
The Arizona English Language Learner Assessment, abbreviated as AZELLA, is used to determine the English language proficiency of Arizona K-12 students whose primary home language is other than English. AZELLA results include a composite proficiency level score and separate subtest scores for Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Total Writing. Scores are reported in terms of scaled scores and proficiency levels.
The five proficiency levels of the AZELLA are Pre-Emergent, Emergent, Basic, Intermediate, and Proficient. Students in this study were assessed on the AZELLA in the fall, prior to using Fast ForWord products, and again in the spring, after using the products.
Seventy-nine percent of the students increased their proficiency by one or more levels. According to a study through the Arizona Department of Education, students typically have a difficult time moving beyond the Intermediate level, with 38% moving to Proficient after one year, and 46% moving to Proficient after two years. After using the Fast ForWord products, 68% of the Intermediate students reached the Proficient level. In fact, 22% of the students who were initially at Basic reached Proficient.
For more information, please see the Educator Briefing and Full Report on this study as well as any of our 200+ additional reports on Fast ForWord results. If you have questions about any of our research studies, please contact us.
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Brain Fitness, Brain Research, English Language Learners, Fast ForWord, Scientific Learning Research
One Half Year Increase in One Month with Reading Assistant
- August 25, 2010 by Melissa Agocs
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The Marion County Schools in West Virginia were interested in evaluating the impact of the Reading Assistant software on readers who had demonstrated “partial mastery” on their state assessment. The software was used within an intensive summer school program.
In the summer of 2009, prior to entering the fifth grade, these selected students worked for 30 minutes a day on Reading Assistant, three to four days per week, for four weeks.
The Scholastic Reading Inventory, abbreviated as SRI, was used as a pre and post measure. The assessment is a research-based, computer-adaptive reading assessment for Grades K–12 that measures students’ level of reading comprehension and it reports Lexile scores. At this age, average readers typically gain 100 to 120 Lexile points after a full year of instruction.
In the video, the graph presented shows the gains the students made on the Scholastic Reading Inventory, significantly improving their Lexile scores from 537, shown by the blue bar, to 605, shown by the red bar. In this one-month summer program, participants gained 68 points, more than half the expected yearly gain of 100 to 120 points.
For more information, please see the Educator Briefing on this study as well as any of our 200+ additional reports on Fast ForWord software results. If you have questions about any of our research studies, please contact us.
Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!
Categories: Reading & Learning, Reading Assistant, Scientific Learning Research
Video Games: A New Perspective on Learning Content and Skills
- July 22, 2010 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.
Being in the business of e-learning, I am fascinated by video games. No, I’m not a big player myself, but they amaze me for what they can do in terms of teaching and learning. While their primary goal may be to entertain, the core of what they do is perform a continuous process of teaching, simulated practice and assessment, all while engaging learners in learning from worlds rich with content and experience.
As teachers, we’ve always looked to various types of non-interactive content to engage and instruct students. Prior to the 20th century, we depended upon print. In the 1970’s, I remember cassette tapes and film strips coming into the classroom. In the 1980’s, it was video cassettes. Now, we show DVD’s and online video.
Today our digital native students are looking for the kind of interactivity that they experience in their lives outside of school—and that includes the video games that they play. But what skills and experiences can students gain through interactive gaming environments?
- Learning to try. According to James Gee of Arizona State University, the essence of gaming is that, by its nature, it integrates learning with embedded assessment. With textbooks and lectures, a learner gains knowledge by reading and hearing about subjects. In simulated environments, learners experience situations and content first-hand. They attempt solutions, experience failures and learn from mistakes to proceed to higher levels. They are rewarded for pushing the envelope.
- Thinking about the big picture. In A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink discusses six different senses essential for success in our age, one of which is "symphonic thinking," or the ability to see the big picture of situations, manipulate multiple variables and add invention to solve problems. In today’s rich and detailed game environments, players must successfully learn to do exactly that to achieve the goals of the simulation.
- Collaborating and cooperating. With the introduction of online video games, successful achievement of objectives requires communication and collaboration amongst multiple players. In today’s world, these are clearly skills that one needs to achieve success.
While the so-called edutainment market is small, educators and entrepreneurs alike are in the process of bringing the true educational value of computer games into the classroom.
Is the shift going to be rocky? Absolutely. As an example, look at the debate around a "historical action" game called Six Days in Fallujah and the mainstream discussion that has taken place on NPR and in Newsweek. Will this genre of game become a new form of documentary? If contextualized appropriately by a teacher, can this breed of games represent a serious way for students to experience the civics, political science or world history first-hand? After considering that, check out Games for Change, an example of a new breed of online games for teaching and learning a wide variety of topics with significant human impact. This is a challenging and productive debate, one that will take the marriage between computer games and the instruction of content and skills to the next level.
Edutopia recommends many resources for further exploration of the value of computer games in education, including:
- Let the Games Begin offers a wonderful perspective on the educational value of games.
- Schools Use Gaming for Learning and Assessment (video) presents an overview of the benefits of computer gaming simulations.
- In Big Thinkers, Professor James Gee (mentioned above) discusses the opportunities and advantages that gaming provides for learning and assessment.
What role do you think video games should play in education? Share your perspective on our Scientific Learning Facebook page!
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Categories: Education Trends, Family Focus, Reading & Learning
