Assessment Technology Review

I selected Futurekids Prometheus Technology for my review of an alternate school assessment tool (http://www.futurekids.com). I haven't used an assessment tool in an educational environment as my career is in the software development industry. I am, however, familiar with several employee assessment tools.

Futurekids is a five step service provider to K12 education providers. The company focuses specifically on the assessment of teacher, administrator and student technology skill levels, and the school's goals and IT infrastructure. The assessment output is in the form of a report on student and teacher competency results and IT infrastructure assessment results, including areas for improvement and comparisons with other benchmark results in the country. Futurekids also provides a review of the school's technology plan. The assessment categories include basic concept knowledge and skills, classroom/personal productivity skills, classroom instruction skills, communication/information skills, integration of technology into the curriculum, leadership skills related to technology management and educational leadership.

Individual learning plans can be generated by teachers, administrators, technology coordinators and students. These plans target new proficiency levels to be achieved in the various categories of skill and knowledge.

The second step is the creation of a customized technology plan by Futurekids based on the assessment results and dialogue with the school staff. The third step involves a weeklong training session for the technology coordinator for the school, to enable them to reach the goals established in the technology plan. The implementation phase is the fourth step and involves mentoring of the technology coordinator by an assigned Futurekids mentor. Finally, a reporting activity at the end of each school year provides additional assessment feedback to the school relative to the technology plan objectives.

I am currently implementing a similar methodology at Double-Take Software to create a records retention program for the company. I've deployed an assessment application (hosted software) throughout the company to identify current records retention practices. From the tabulation of the resulting data and review of benchmark data, we'll generate a retention policy and schedule. The policy and schedule will be implemented via the hosted application to enable us to manage the schedule properly, including the materials sent to offsite storage.

In light of my current internal assessment activities, I found the Futurekids services to be interesting as they focus on one specific segment of teacher/admin/student assessment that may not be on the map for ISTEP and NCLB. I'm unfamiliar with any requirements for NCLB relative to technology proficiency, yet I do believe that the school environments that address most stakeholder needs for technology proficiency will be those meeting other core NCLB requirements as well.

As a parent, I want my children to be competent in technology matters and I also want their school to communicate with me in ways I am comfortable (email, web-based communications, online homework assignments). Because I work full-time it is not possible for me to use only the phone and walk-in for administrator and teacher contact. I carry a blackberry and cell phone with me and wish the Blue River Valley school system would email me with important notes (rather than make me dig through backpacks every evening) and call my cell when I'm needed (rather than leave a voicemail on my home phone only).

The Apple SIS site for PowerSchool documents an April 24, 2006 news release detailing the results of a PowerSchool survey ("Vast Majority of U.S. Parents Agree That Student Achievement Would Improve if Current Communication Methods between Schools and Parent Were Made Better"). The survey findings indicate that "parent/teacher conferences are the primary way through which parents receive academic progress information from their child's school...". That's truly unfortunate given that teachers have only a ten-to-fifteen minute slot for parents once or twice a year!

I routinely provide technical support to my children's teachers for their school and home computers and am surprised at the lack of technology training available for the teachers at their schools. An assessment tool that could get at the heart of the technology proficiency short-comings and identify learning objectives for improvement would be beneficial to many school systems and the associated parents. The benefits would include improved use of communication methods with parents and perhaps a better match with student learning methods. Instructional methods haven't changed much over the years but the ways in which students like to learn have changed considerably through exposure to the internet, video and online games, texting, etc.

Schools have failed black male students

From Friday's USA Today, a letter to the editor:

"USA TODAY's editorial on the gender gap in high school graduation rates highlights the national tragedy of how schools have failed boys, especially African-American boys. But the data cited in the editorial and originally published by Education Week is not new and only reports what nmost parents, teachers and school officials already know yet choose to ignore: Public schools are failing to educate black boys ("When it comes to your sons, schools miss the mark," Editorial, Friday).
The graduation rate for black boys is a disgrace, and the education system's failure to provide an environment where black boys can be successful is almost criminal.
Even though public school systems are well aware of the status of black male students, they are ignored, stereotyped and written off as dysfunctional.
The low graduation rate is only part of the tragedy. Black male students are disproportionately suspended and expelled from school, systematically excluded from advanced and college preparatory classes, and overrepresented in special education classes.
Last month, the governor of Ohio took the bold step of convening a state conference to explore how public schools and local communities could address these issues. Every state should follow the lead of Ohio by developing initiatives to address the status of black male students in public schools."
- Floyd Weatherspoon, Professor of Law, Capital University Law School, Columbus, Ohio

Floyd provides a good overview of the problems of exclusion within our school systems. Many schools appear to effectively serve students who "conform" well to certain implicit standards. However, as pointed out by Weatherspoon, there are many who fall outside of that group.

Special Ed Needs - NCLB

There was an interesting article in yesterday's Muncie Star Press: States not meeting special-ed conditions.

Washington: "Four-fifths of the states are falling short of federal requirements for educating students with disabilities, the Education Department says.
The states got their first-ever federal report cards this week judging them on how well they are implementing the nation's main special education law.
The state-by-state results were posted on the Education Department's Web site Wednesday.
The requirements are outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, as the law is called. The largest part of the act is a $10.5 billion program providing students aged 3 to 21 with specialized programs to fit their educational needs.
Only nine states were found to be fully meeting the requirements of that part of the program. Those states are: Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming.
The rest of the states were labeled as "needs assistance" or, worse, "needs intervention."
If they don't improve within a few years, they could face sanctions such as the loss of federal aid."

Although the article did not specifically address NCLB, I think that the study results indicate that this is one of the risk areas related to assessments and school status. Special needs students appear to be under-served in meeting their learning needs. Perhaps the NCLB data confirms the results of this special ed needs study.

This is one area where radical change is needed, not just a continuous improvement approach from the current baseline.

Recent newspaper articles have indicated a significant rise in the rate of autism diagnosis in children. How will our school systems integrate the needs of these students? Or will they be "left behind"?