School first to use new technology to assess progress

Madison Middle School will be the first school in the nation to have the ability to monitor progress throughout the year and gauge within a few points how students will score on the Kentucky Core Content Test.

The district has been working with three companies to design what many are calling the height of formative assessment. Turning Technologies, creator of the Turning Point Student Response System, Study Island and Edutrax, are working together to combine three unique products to create one instructional assessment and reporting tool for Madison County Schools and Madison Middle will host the pilot project.

Madison County teachers received training for the three technologies earlier this week and plan to implement them in the classrooms immediately.

Madison Middle School Principal Brad Winkler and Tina Sartori, education consultant for Turning Technologies, began working on ways to expand the school’s use of the student response systems. The solution was broken down into three core concepts: daily or weekly assessments, proven assessment questions and regularly analyzing results.

Sartori began looking at ways to utilize the data collected by the student response systems to give Madison Middle teachers and administrators an idea of where students are academically. Scott Anderson, assistant principal, suggested using Study Island to assess the students. Anderson had used the web-based instructional and assessment tool in North Carolina before coming to Kentucky.

Study Island is a research and standards-based product that allows teachers to access proven assessment questions that are in line with the Kentucky Core Content Test questions. Use of Study Island with the student response system means that teachers can collect data on a daily or weekly basis to assess where each individual student is on a concept. Study Island can also track individual student progress when students use the online instructional tools. The teacher can then assess where a class as a whole is on that concept and where the achievement gaps are appearing.

The last piece of the puzzle, according to District Technology Director Charlene McGee, was adding Edutrax, a company that can bring together the recorded data and produce a complete analysis of student learning. The company can give the teacher and the school an affordable, complete report of progress in any content area for any group of students or any individual student in a minimal amount of time.

“The students and teachers are enjoying using clickers in the classroom already, and this full solution is expected to dramatically increase student achievement and test scores for all students at Madison Middle School,” McGee said.

McGee added that a combination of three uniquely different products like this for the common goal of regular student assessment has never been done in the United States.

“This would be the first school in the nation to use these three companies for this common purpose,” she said. “That means that Madison Middle could be breaking ground on the next great tool for educators.”

“We have recognized the potential of this technology to enhance instruction through instant assessment, immediate feedback and engaging students,” said Superintendent Tommy Floyd. “These three technologies have been very successful and they will now begin to play a large role in making every student count at Madison Middle School.”

Plans to use this technology throughout the district are already in the works. If the technology is used district-wide, it would be possible for district leaders to receive reports on groups of students at any given time throughout the school year. That would give district leaders the ability to assess what groups of students need additional help in particular content areas as well as gage where the district is in regards to the KCCT standards.

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