Saugus schools take big step in testing

SAUGUS-The School Committee allowed the district to take a giant step forward in testing assessment and intervention Thursday when it approved the purchase of an interactive software program.Teachers at the Belmonte Middle School were won over during a recent demonstration of a PowerPoint-based program that allows them to ask a question, have students answer using a clicker and have those answers tabulated instantly. The immediate feedback allows teachers to see if their students are grasping what they are teaching.Maureen Ellsworth of Turning Technologies said the results can also be further broken down into a variety of different reports such as showing how individual students answered questions. And that, she added, could indicate which students are struggling and in what areas, thus opening the door for intervention.Ellsworth was on hand to not only walk committee members through the program but to put a clicker in their hands and get them to play. Ellsworth said answering questions via a clicker lets students respond anonymously; erasing any intimidation or shyness they might feel – and it’s something kids are familiar with. Ellsworth noted that students are plugged in and powered up all day with cell phones, instant messaging, music downloads and the Internet.”Then they come into class and we ask them to power down,” she said. “This puts a clicker in their hand. It gets their thumbs moving.”While having a smart board in the classrooms helps with the program, Ellsworth said it is not essential. Results can also be read on a small hand held device.The questions are drawn up by teachers who can write their own or choose from a bank of 30,000 pre-written questions that come with the program, based on what they are focusing on.Superintendent of Schools Richard Langlois said it is his plan to target math, starting primarily with third graders, but he sees limitless possibilities.”It can also be used for pre-assessments as well just to see what students already know,” Ellsworth said.While the program will cost the district $35,000 to put it in a minimum of 25 classrooms, Langlois said collaborative purchasing with two other communities and hard negotiations got $500 per unit knocked off the price.He said he also got a few hand held readers thrown in for good measure and scored a training session for 20 teachers at a reduced rate.Langlois said the plan is to put 10 units in the elementary schools, 10 at the middle school and five at the high school in the ninth grade. Once purchased, the software can be loaded on to as many computers as the district has, including teachers’ personal computers if they prefer to do their lesson plans at home.The receivers and clickers are kept as one unit and can be designated to a classroom or kept in the office for any teacher to use.”It fills a gap,” Langlois said. “We don’t have any other way of measuring how a student is doing and this gives us the ability to engage kids at every level.”School Committee Christine Wilson was all for the program.”A lot of time when we spend money, people ask how, ?does it benefit student achievement,'” she said. “This will directly benefit student achievement.”