App piloted in Nassau County district tracks student progress on standards |
On Board Online • April 6, 2015
By Nancy M. Lenz
Special Correspondent
From kindergartners in the Class of 2027 to the graduating class of 2015, today's students have something in common: they love hand-held devices. School districts like them too, particularly in Mineola, where iPads are being used as a delivery system for "electronic portfolios" that track progress on Common Core State Standards for each student in grades 3 through 9.
In Mineola, homework and other assignments are collected, marked, and returned digitally. Using microphones in their iPads, teachers can record comments on lessons, homework and other assignments.
Teachers can see which students have mastered each standard and who needs remediation, then assign new work based on each student's level. Teachers can also use the app to share information and collaborate.
Assessments used in the app came from the State Education Department's EngageNY website, and a common rubric is in place for grading each standard.
"The constant availability of data on student progress is invaluable," said Superintendent Michael Nagler. Having an electronic tool that focuses attention on students' progress on standards avoids the all-too-common "obsession" with once-a-year standardized exams, Nagler said. He said his goal is to have teachers focus their energy on the basics of education, not state test preparation.
He said the app is improving the district's culture "by focusing on what we know is the right thing to do for kids."
A Manhattan company called School 4 One developed the app with input from the district.
School 4 One chief executive Massimo Scapini told On Board that the app is currently being used by four schools in New York and New Jersey, and he sees a big potential market. "Schools that implement Common Core Standards need to track more than 200 standards per student during the school year," he said. "In simple steps, our workflow allows teachers to grade assignments using Common Core rubrics. The result is the creation of an e-portfolio of student work by standards that can be used in different ways."
For instance, the app provides standards-based grade books that give teachers easy access to an entire year's worth of work, connects to new standards- based report cards, and shows parents real examples of their child's progress.
Seventh grade math teacher Kerry Ann Murphy said the feedback from parents has been "very positive."
For Mineola, the app is just the beginning, Nagler said. "We are researching and implementing methods to assess the whole child," he said. "We are building a platform that can be expanded to create electronic portfolios that will also demonstrate all of the components that schools teach that aren't formally assessed. By next year we hope to demonstrate student understanding in dispositions or habits of the mind that should be recognized and developed as an indicator of student success that is perhaps more important than standardized exams."
The School 4 One app has been available for download on iTunes since September 2014 at goo.gl/4n3KB9 . It's free for three months, and after that users pay between $9.99 and $19.96 per month depending on the features they want to install. For school- or district-wide use, contact the company via its website, www.school4one.com.