Fundamental Skills are the Foundation for Future Success
Uncategorized December 12th, 2008
I once heard a very smart educator tell me that academic success is not guaranteed just because a student is able to read at grade level. He also went on to say that academic failure is highly probable if the student can’t read at grade level. Interesting concept!
It’s scary to look at today’s nationwide numbers for students in the fourth grade that aren’t able to read at grade level. What’s worse is that the numbers are much worse for the most at risk students – the economically disadvantaged (Title 1) and the immigrant populations (Title 3), two thirds of which struggle academically. Lack of fundamental reading and math skills at an early age is a great predictor of academic failure in middle and high school.
Research has proven that one answer to helping the most at risk students is the use of individualized instruction that focuses on filling each student’s learning gaps. The only way to do that is to first figure out what they need. The education system has always struggled with that, because it is difficult, at best, to assess students on a large scale. Administering a paper and pencil test to a student requires a remarkable amount of resources and the results are usually not available for weeks or months later.
Automated testing systems are the answer. Online assessments are now available for elementary level reading and math skills that will allow for hundreds of students to be assessed at the same time. What’s even better is that the results of the assessment are immediately produced and ready for educators to use for setting up differentiated instruction. Another plus that a computer based online assessment offers that paper and pencil test don’t is that they are adaptive. Online adaptive assessments move up or down in level of difficulty based on the student’s performance on the assessment and are by their very nature much more precise.
In addition to online assessments, there are also programs that offer automated online instruction. When the instruction program is set up based on the results of the assessment, the student will receive true differentiated instruction. If this is set up automatically, then the teacher can focus on a greater level of intervention when necessary.
Here’s how it works. If a fifth grader takes the online reading assessment and the results show a significant weakness in phonics skills, the automated instruction program will automatically provide phonics instruction at the appropriate level for that student. In most cases, the automated system will be the only way for that student to receive instruction in phonics because it is not offered in the fifth grade.
It is well known that the fundamental skills developed in elementary school are critical for future success. Automated systems implemented in elementary schools for reading and math can ensure that the fundamental skills are well developed and can greatly improve the academic outcomes of our students.
Tags: differentiated instruction, elementary school assessment, online assessment, online instruction, online math instruction, online reading instruction
Education in America is Broken
Uncategorized December 12th, 2008
The US automakers are crying for a bailout from the US government because they have failed miserably to keep pace with the realities of the market. Who’s to blame? The big three management? The UAW? The American public for buying foreign cars? They are losing billions and don’t seem to have a clue how to stop the failure.
The politicians and other well known people who say that we must let them fail or they will continue to repeat the same practices that got them to this point in the first place make a good point. Didn’t they realize last year, or even the year before, that the whole concept couldn’t continue? You can’t keep losing money and expect to succeed in the long run. What are they thinking? Why didn’t they change, and radically, years ago?
If we let them fail it will ruin the economy and devastate the country, others say. Maybe so, but do we want to perpetuate a losing industry? Radical change must come and come quickly.
How is the education system in America any different than the American auto industry?
The system is supported by unprecedented spending and focus on accountability, yet it is failing. Why do I say that? How about the fact that 40% of American 4th graders can’t read at grade level? How about a system that leaves behind the disadvantaged (Title 1) and limited English proficient (Title 3) students to the tune of 65% of 4th graders who can’t read at grade level? Does that sound good for the economy or healthy for our country?
The education system in America is broken and needs the same type of radical change that the American auto industry needs. Everyone knows that the American auto industry needs to make cleaner, more efficient cars. Well, guess what? Everyone knows that the American education system needs to focus more on individualized instruction to help the kids that need it most.
The time has come for our leaders and all stakeholders in our kids education to acknowledge the obvious and make the necessary change to the system. We have an archaic, teacher-centric system that doesn’t work for many of the students it serves. New methods and new technologies such as automated instruction and differentiated instruction must be instituted. The technology is available but the entrenched rank and file of the highly fragmented education system refuse to change. Why change if it’s not broken? Guess what? It is broken and the first thing today’s educators must realize is that failure can’t continue to be tolerated. Take a lesson from the American auto industry.
Tags: education change, Educational Technology, Title 1, Title 3
Response to Intervention – The New Focus for Educators
Uncategorized December 10th, 2008
There is a strong push by the federal government and school districts across the country to adopt “response to intervention also know as RTI.” However, in spite of the new focus, this important new concept remains a mystery to most educators and is little known within the teacher community.
This new teaching method, which requires teachers to initiate scientifically based, intensive instruction when students show signs of struggling academically, is supposed to be the formula for better academic results for most students. This is a real problem because if the very teachers who are going to implement the new approach don’t have a clue about what it is or how it works, then it won’t happen for the kids that need it most.
Even with the endorsement and support of the NEA and the formation of the RTI Action Network, a recent informal survey of 800 teachers revealed that over 80% of the respondents rated their knowledge of RTI as “minimal to none.” In response to this knowledge gap, the 3.2 million member NEA, the nation’s largest teachers’ union held a symposium designed to introduce educators to RTI.
A key concept of RTI is that all students in the classroom need to be evaluated to see if they are on track academically. The evaluations should reveal strengths and weaknesses and give teachers the information thaey will need to address the issues head on. This initial evaluation is a key concept of differentiated instruction and in fact they are one and the same. RTI is truly a way of formally bringing a process for delivering differentiated intruction to those that need it most.
If the educators can get the message and the training to bring RTI to the classroom, then that along with automated systems that achieve the similar result can truly change the results that we’re getting in our schools, especially in the early elementary grades where skills building is so critical for later success.
Tags: Add new tag, online instruction, online math assessment, online reading assessment, Response to Intervention, RTI
Technology, Automation and Education – What Are We Waiting for?
Educational Technology December 4th, 2008
Education and especially education in America needs a serious dose of technology and automation that is long overdue. The automated tools are available, but adoption has been slow at best, and even with the meteoric rise of the Internet, educators have been reluctant to change the old ways of doing things.
The One Room Schoolhouse
I attended American public schools in the 50s and 60s and what is truly startling is how little has changed in the 50 years since then. The buildings are pretty much the same, the classrooms look exactly like they did “in the day,” with a desk for each student and the teacher’s desk strategically placed to keep a watchful eye on the class. In fact, the biggest change you find from then and now is that the blackboard is now a whiteboard!
The teaching / learning process today is “teacher centric” and revolves around the completion of lessons in a text book, just as it has been done since the advent of the one room schoolhouse on the prairie. The teacher lectures, administers the lesson plans and grades the papers. The “sage on the stage” is the main reason students learn and the quality of the teacher is a major factor in how much the students learn and retain.
Think back to your own experience in school and I’ll bet there were teachers who intrigued and excited you on the one hand, and on the other there were many who went through the motions and bored you to tears. The teacher centric method depends too much on the “art” of teaching and the standard of really high quality education will never be realized as long as it is so dependent on the quality of the teacher.
We’ve achieved remarkable progress in 50 years – especially in the area of technology and communication. Why hasn’t education kept pace? Why are we doing things in education pretty much the same way they were done in the one room schoolhouse on the prairie?
Automation Improves Productivity and Results
Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, automation has been recognized as a key factor in improving productivity. It has led to higher quality and reduced production time and cost in such industries as the auto industry, manufacturing and even agriculture. Thousands of acres of crops can be planted, nurtured, grown and harvested by machinery for a fraction of the cost of doing the same job using horses and human labor. But that is so obvious in this day and age. Why don’t we apply the same principles to education?
One of the problems is that the institutions that are training our educators are not in tune with the potential quality and productivity gains that can be realized using automation in education. Most teachers are given training in teaching technique and classroom management, but are rarely exposed to the new automated tools and devices that can enhance and greatly improve the education process.
I can remember my first introduction to automation in school. We were led into an AV (audiovisual) room where there was a big 25” black and white TV set up. The program they showed us was a science series that was aired by National Geographic on a public broadcasting station at a set time each day. This interesting series covered a remarkably diverse number of subjects in science and nature. Each of these programs was developed by subject-matter experts who narrated well designed presentations with visuals and actual film footage to bring the subject to life. These programs were vivid and exciting and I developed a strong fundamental understanding of many areas of science because of them. I grew to love science and enjoyed the presentations and the experience of learning in this way.
Unfortunately this was the only real experience I can recall in my public school years – due to the fact that the science program on TV was the only experience I was offered. It was always, another teacher, another text book, another test, another grade. Why change the process when it seemed to work, especially for so long.
Well, today’s education is in crisis and is struggling to keep millions of kids from dropping out before they finish high school. Americans are not keeping pace in education with the rest of the world and the comparative reading and math scores of American students are indicative of a system that is in need of dramatic change.
Automation and a greater acceptance of technology in general is one answer whose time has come. Learning systems that begin by quickly and accurately identifying each student’s strengths and weaknesses are essential to allowing educators to focus instruction on the student’s appropriate level. If our educators continue to use the “one lesson fits all” approach, we will continue to bore some students and worst yet, leave others behind – and we will continue to get the same dismal results that have plagued the American education system for years.
Prescriptive Instruction
It’s not easy to evaluate hundreds or thousands of students in an accurate and timely way without the use of automation. There are automated online systems that can provide computer adaptive tests that can pinpoint each student’s ability quickly and in depth. These online learning systems can immediately report results that can then be used to provide targeted instruction either through traditional methods or by establishing a customized program of online instruction automatically. This process is known as “prescriptive instruction.” It requires an in depth skills evaluation and then allows for targeted instruction that is appropriate for each student individually.
Imagine going to a doctor and being told, “I don’t know what is troubling you or why you are here, but I am going to prescribe this medicine for you that I’ve given to every one of my patients because it seems to make them better.” How fast would you be out the door running from that quack? Isn’t the education system saying the same things to our students? “Hey kid, you’re in the fourth grade, here’s the fourth grade text book, read chapter one and were going to have a test on it next week.” Sounds a lot like the doctor that is prescribing the same medicine to every patient, doesn’t it?
I recently heard a perfect description of our public education system in America from an enlightened educator who understands the value of technology and automation in education. He said, “The public education system in this country is an industrial process run on an agrarian calendar in a digital age…go figure.”
Technology and automation solutions abound and will allow the teacher to become a facilitator in the learning process. What education needs is for the teacher to become the “guide on the side” while allowing technology and automation to more appropriately deal with our 21st century learners.
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