Implementing a technology based program such as Study Island may help improve students’ study skills and habits, as well as their test scores.
The Problem of Practice
The big push in school systems today is passing the state achievement tests. As a result, having students pass the achievement test is a top priority at Fostoria Community Schools. According to the Ohio Department of Education’s 2008-2009 School Year Report Card for Riley Elementary School, the school has been designated as showing “Continuous Improvement” (reportcard.ohio.gov). In order to reflect academic excellence and earn a higher designation, at least 75% of Riley Elementary students tested must score proficient or higher on the test. Currently, only 60% of all tested students at Riley Elementary scored proficient on the achievement test for this past school year.
In efforts to improve student success, practice achievement tests are administered every week, rotating in subject. Lesson plans and curriculum maps are designed to align with state standards, and therefore content on the achievement test. Much time and effort goes into guiding each student to success. However, we have to remember that each student is different in their educational needs. Students learn at different paces and with different depths of understanding. Implementing a program such as Study Island would help provide students with the individualized support they need in order to maximize success.
Study Island is an innovative website focused on providing instruction, practice and assessment based on state standards (www.studyisland.com). This is a website that is made available to administrators, teachers, parents and students. Study Island focuses all of their materials off of state standards in order to provide authentic resources for each state. Students begin the Study Island program by completing a pre-test to determine what level they will begin at. From there, they can complete lessons and practice sessions based off of the state standards. Sessions are broken down by standard, and then furthermore by indicator. Students can complete a set of practice problems within each indicator, take a review over multiple indicators, and even play games based off of content within individual standards. Teachers can then track students’ progress, as can parents.
Providing students with timely and detailed feedback is essential to mastering skills. Giving feedback helps students identify their mistakes and further develop mastery. As noted by Jere Brophy in his research article titled Teaching he states “To be useful, practice must involve opportunities not only to apply skills but also to receive timely feedback” (p. 22). While students are completing segments on Study Island they are given direct feedback on their progress. When students answer a question incorrectly, Study Island gives students a hint as to how to obtain the correct answer; therefore, guiding them to success.
Also, students receive updates on their progress after completing a segment. Students must score a specified percentage in order to progress on to the next section. All of these results are available for teachers to access as well. Teachers can pull up a class report in order to see how students are doing, and where they are in the program. This data is also available to parents so they can track their student’s progress as well.
Hi Ashlee,
ReplyDeleteI first heard of Study Island in the 810 presentations. Personally, (sorry i am a bit of a cynic when it comes to teaching to the test), i just have to say that the idea of weekly tests, based on Standards and Benchmarks is abhorrent to me. The old saying, 'You can't fatten a pig by weighing it', comes to mind. HOWEVER, I also realize that we teachers have very little voice in that, as a teacher in a public school, you gotta do what you gotta do!
It does seem from your very careful explanation that Study Island will help your school in monitoring your students progress against the Standards and Benchmarks. I am looking forward to reading your research on how other schools have used it and with what degree of success. Have you personally been using it for long? It might also be interesting, as with any computer marked assessment, what flaws there are if any and how these are taken in to account with the final score. We have recently initiated online writing through the ERB. Students are given a prompt and write for 40 minutes. They get immediate feedback on the mechanics, structure etc. The kids love it and it is highly motivating. However, I noticed when I went through their scripts manually that the computer does not pick up homophones or misuse of apostrophes. The computer also gave high scores for 'development' of stories that clearly had no development. I think with any computer assessed writing you have to be careful. I am guessing there is a writing component of Study Island and just wonder if it has the same flaw. Obviously ,if it is just multiple choice questions then it will be accurate but I would be interested in hearing more about the types of questions it asks. I think it would also be interesting to what measures your school was doing before to bring up their test scores (and how successful they were) and what measures are also being put in to place alongside Study Island. It was also to be interesting to know how the students feel about completing Study Island. Maybe you could give them a survey about their reactions towards the different subjects, the feedback, plotting their progress etc.
I am very interested to find out how this goes Ashlee as it is something very new to me. Good luck with it and I look forward to reading more about your research and how it is working in other schools.
I, too, heard about Study Island in CEP 810. I do not have any experience with the program, though. Is it something that students can access from home? Could you work with parents to lessen gaps in student learning by giving them lessons to have them work on at home? Does your entire school use the program and if so, do they track student's progress from grade to grade and compare it with test results?
ReplyDeleteI have been using Study Island for two years now and I will tell you IT WORKS. Students CAN access it from home and it is GREAT MEAP prep. You can create your own assignments and it is a program that is purchased by the entire school, grades K-5. As a teacher, you can easily track student results...I'm just answering some of Chloe's questions. If you have any questions or need any information about Study Island, please let me know!
ReplyDeleteI am a big Study Island fan. I think your topic and solution is a good one. In this draft, they wanted you to focus on the problem and not actually go into the solution (Section 1.8) You do a good job of explaining study island, but I would like you to develop the problem a little more than you do here. You have a good start.
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