Brannon+(Brandy)+Lutz

Lutz-Module 5 Project Assessment/Evaluation  Objective: To ensure that Read 180 and Compass Learning Odyssey programs are being properly utilized by teachers and that the programs are addressing student deficiencies in math and reading as needed for adequate growth on state standardized tests. Programs will provide in-depth feedback on student deficiencies Programs will assist with intensive instruction Programs will also indicate student growth with deficiencies Evaluation: Observations by teacher trainers and administrators Teacher/student surveys about comfort level with programs <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Database printout to verify time spent using program <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Assessment: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Database reports pulled for analysis <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Pre and post tests for individual sections covered to measure growth <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">SRI tests for Read 180 given four times per year to verify lexile growth <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Quizzes provided at the end of each section covered in Compass Odyssey <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Budget and financial information: <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The school entered into a three year agreement with Scholastic to utilize the Scholastic Read 180 program. This program includes computer software, textbooks, books for the book shelf, and audio and video tapes. During this contract period, representatives from Scholastic also come to the school for support and to observe teaching methods and conduct in-house trainings during planning times. While this program seems expensive at approximately $30,000 per section generally costing each school approximately $150,000 for five sections/classrooms, this program has been accepted and adopted not only by this school, but district-wide. In addition, the school is receiving a generous federal grant for the purpose of school turnaround and improvement that will last for three years. This program is considered essential for that improvement. At this particular school, the Scholastic contract is good through the 2012-2013 school year so funding for this program is not an issue at this time. Further, the necessary computer equipment, internet connections, and Read 180 software are already in place and installed, so this would also not be an additional cost. Compass Learning Odyssey is renewed yearly and is also a district wide accepted initiative. Compass Odyssey is a web-based program that costs approximately $15,000 per school. However, because this school is a “turnaround school”, the cost for this program comes from alternate district funding that does not impact the school’s budget and is not available to schools that are not turnaround schools. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Costs concerns would include funding the medium cost intervention of $25,000 for training expenses, to ensure all teachers receive the proper training for Read 180 and Compass Learning Odyssey software. This amount will be split up over a three year period, since the federal grant will be funding this amount. In the first year, any existing teachers without proper training with both programs with receive the necessary training either in-house or at the district training facility if necessary. During the second and third years of the grant, new teachers to the school, unfamiliar with the programs will be trained either in-house or at the district training facility if necessary. Costs will include substitute teacher coverage while teachers attend training. There are no additional fees to attend at the district facility because the teachers teach within the district and program trainer fees are included as part of the three year Scholastic contract. There is a district trainer at the district facility that provides support for Compass Odyssey, so this too would not cost any additional fees for training. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Technical information: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The school is equipped with five Read 180 classrooms. Each classroom has seven desktop computers connected to the internet through a wired internet hub connection. All hardware and software is already installed and the district provides all support needed for any technology issues. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Summative assessments: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Two mock FCAT tests, FCAT, District Benchmark test and the SRI test for lexile growth. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Formative assessments: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Computer quizzes at the end of each section for Read 180 and Compass Odyssey, Read 180 book quizzes and rBook checkpoints, Compass Odyssey practice quizzes, class assessments and teacher observations. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Website Links: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">IT: [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Substitutes: [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Training fees: [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Grant information: [] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Lutz Module 4 Wiki

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The spacing is not working the way I wanted it to on here, so I have attached my module 4 assignment as well for easier reading if needed.

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<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">The strengths of all the interventions include teachers being given the proper training on the programs that will address the math and reading deficiencies. These programs include Scholastic Read 180 and Compass Learning Odyssey, because they can address the low reading and math scores. More importantly, now that the school is receiving a grant to help bridge these learning gaps, expecting to receive $25,000 or less to fund this initiative and help all teachers understand these programs and be able to competently use these programs because of training received and assistance given in this area, is reasonable and fairly inexpensive on the grand scale of expenditures. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">The other interventions have more weaknesses because the low cost strategy may not provide enough training for teachers that are truly struggling with grasping and fully understanding the programs that will be used. By not offering a knowledgeable, outside source to come in and assist with more in depth training, some teachers may never fully understand the programs use or purpose. The high cost intervention strategy is really not feasible because of its high cost. Due to budget constraints, the grant will have to be stretched in order to fill the gaps where the budget ends in order to accommodate all the needs of the school. The school could use $50,000 for a multitude of things such as supplies, events for school, special activities, and even textbooks. The list is endless so spending that much money for one person to hold one position seems wasteful. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">The intervention I selected was the medium cost intervention and it seems to have a higher probability of working because it will utilize teachers training teachers at the school, as well as provide additional training from someone with the program for teachers who do not seem to immediately grasp the programs concepts. Based on the data that has tracked the use of the Read 180 program and Compass Learning Odyssey program, statistics show that these two programs assist with improving student growth and performance on standardized tests. For example, In 2006-2007 9th grade students enrolled Read 180 in Seminole County, Florida exceeded the benchmark for annual yearly growth on the FCAT (Lang, L., et. al. 2009). Read 180 was one of four effective literacy programs out of 128 (Slavin, R., et. al. 2008). Compass Learning Odyssey offers assignments aligned with the state standards. Tasks are interactive and challenging and available for remediation or self help and are subjects are available as assigned to students by their teachers (Education Solutions, Compass Learning Odyssey). <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">These programs are already in use at the school, some teachers are already familiar with the programs, so not every teacher would require additional training with these programs. The equipment necessary to run these programs is also already in place at the school. The gap exists with those teachers who are unfamiliar with these two programs and unsure how to implement them in the classroom. The school is losing 50% of its population due to many teachers receiving a surplus to another school, so this may increase the training gap largely depending on how many incoming teachers are also unfamiliar with the programs. Since the program and equipment schematics are already in place, the training is what needs to occur to promote these programs and improve student growth. **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Project Manager Responsibilities ** <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">For this project, the project manager position would probably fall in the hands of the current instructional coach at the school. She is already in a position where teachers listen and follow her directions for meeting timelines with turning in data and other reports, so this manager position would not be out of her realm or require teachers to be accountable to someone they have never done so for before. She would be responsible for delegating tasks to teachers, such as which teachers exhibit enough knowledge to be part of the teacher training team and have delivery system responsibilities (Januszewski & Molenda, 2008). She may also assign other teachers the task of monitoring the training, so those teachers that initially struggle, can receive the additional training available through the program trainer. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">The resources that will be needed include computers in all math and reading classrooms. All computers in these classrooms, as well as all the computers in the computer labs, the media center and the Fast ForWord lab will need to programmed with both the Read 180 program, and the Compass Learning Odyssey program. Students with the lowest FCAT scores in reading and math will have priority in using these programs, because they must be enrolled in the programs and because Compass Learning Odyssey issues a set amount of certificates to a school for student use, so any students in less need of this program based on previous FCAT scores would be monopolizing a certificate that another student may have a greater need for. Obviously, teachers must be trained in the use of these two programs so they can competently be used in the classroom. An internet connection must also be available to these computers in order to access both of these programs. Currently, certificates, computers, and internet access through an Ethernet connection are already available and installed throughout the school’s different computer locations in specialized labs and the classrooms. Read 180 offers student tracking through the SAM program. Any and all information a teacher could ever want is available through this program. Time on task or spent in each section is available, recorded student readings are available, quiz results, book report quizzes, and multiple other options are all available to teachers for tracking. Students will also complete a student reading inventory (SRI) quiz four times throughout the school year to monitor reading growth. Students take the initial SRI quiz and this gives each student their own reading lexile. As they test throughout the year, their SRI score is expected to increase because of growth. A full year’s growth would be the equivalent of 75 points increase between the first and last tests. For Compass Learning Odyssey, teachers have several tracking points available to them, including time spent in any section assigned, the final score for that section, quiz scores, feedback on what the student struggled with in particular and many other options. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;">Students will receive access to these programs during reading and math classes within their classrooms. Since most math classrooms only have two to three computers, it will be up to the math teacher to determine which students need to use the program the most based on classroom or program deficiencies. The teacher can create their own computer schedule so access can be shared among all students as much as possible. Reading classrooms typically have seven computers, so read 180 teachers will need to continue using the read 180 format of rotating students between three groups during class, so every student gets twenty minutes worth of computer access per day. A schedule can also be created for certain classes to visit one of the computer labs to work in the Compass Odyssey program as well. Although the Compass Odyssey reports vary from SAM reports they are still very valid and helpful in letting math teachers better understand which concepts each student struggles with the most. These programs will also assist teachers with determining the necessary differentiation for both small and whole group assignments. Then no misunderstood material is slipping beyond the teacher’s attention. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.25in;">Teachers’ data for their classes is stored online within the program database for both programs. Administrators have access to view this data stored under the teacher to track growth and achievement. There are several print options for printing general and specific reports for an individual student or class/group. Access is limited however to the school network and cannot be accessed from a computer not connected to the school network for security purposes, since there is a great deal of student information available in both systems. Students are constantly evaluated through the read 180 program based on how well they score on the SRI and book quizzes that are on their reading lexile. If students score poorly on their reading lexile or their SRI scores drops, then there is more work to be done because the student does not obviously fully understand the material they are covering on their assigned reading level. Aside from this data that is available, surveys can also be issued to the students and teachers that use the programs to determine their satisfactions or dissatisfactions with the programs. This will help determine was should be tweaked to make the programs better and more enjoyable. Administrators can also be surveyed to determine how comfortable they are with pulling and viewing reports to determine student growth and teacher attentiveness to student needs.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal;">Resources: <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Chevalier, R. D. (2007). //A manager's guide to improving workplace performance.// New York: American Management Association. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Education Solutions. Compass Learning Odyssey. Retrieved: [] Januszewski, A., & Molenda, M. (2008). //Educational technology: A definition with commentary//. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Taylor & Frances Group. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Lang, L., Torgesen, J.K., Vogel, W., Chanter, C., Lefsky, E., & Petscher, Y. (2009). Exploring the relative effectiveness of reading interventions for high school students. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2, 149-175. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.5in;">Slavin, R., Cheung, A., Groff, C., & Lake, C. (2008). Effective reading programs for middle and high school students: A best-evidence synthesis. Reading Research Quarterly, 43 (3). 290-322.



I have attached my module 3 assignment for the Wiki. Please provide your feedback on my three methods and let me know which method you prefer. I currently lean towards the first method because it is the least expensive and utilizes teacher input and contribution to one another.

Lutz-Module 2 (6/30/10)

Student performance is lacking specifically in math and reading. The school has a higher than usual percentage of students scoring a level one (1) or two (2) out of five (5) on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). Due to this lack of performance, the school’s letter grade had remained at a “D” for the last eight plus years.

In 2008, 39% of 6th grade students earned a one out of five on the FCAT. In 2009, 33% of 6th grade students earned a one out of five on the FCAT. Similarly, in 2008 40% of 8th grade students earned a two out of five on the FCAT. Scores continued to decline in 2009 when 42% of 8th grade students earned a two out of five on the FCAT, compared to the Florida state average of 29% of eighth grade students earning a two out of five on the FCAT (http://www.duvalschools.org/reseval/Schools/ SchoolResearchData.asp?School=92).

The essential question as to why this problem developed is being able to answer why students remain behind and continue to perform below the state standards? Many indicators for why there is a learning gap include having too many programs in place, with no specific focus on any one or two programs. Due to personal and environmental factors in this impoverished area of town, student motivation also greatly impacts comprehension and then subsequently the test scores. Students have so many other basic need issues to address that a focus on studies tends to lack priority. Students have also been very disruptive in the classroom, often with minimal consequences for their actions, which stunts their learning. Teachers thus developed a negative attitude about their ability to convey learning and comprehension due to the continuous student outbursts. Also, parent/guardian involvement has been minimal, if at all to many important meetings, as well as a lack of parental support for the students in their home environment. In the past, teachers have not been held personally accountable for student gains. Although it has been expected of every teacher to proactively and properly prepare students for the FCAT, there were no repercussions for student failure or decline on this test. That is until now, since a state grant has been obtained requiring teachers to have 65% gains on the FCAT among all of their students or face a surplus to another school.

FCAT scores impact many stakeholders including teachers and administrators, students, parents, and the school and district. For the past two school years since 2007 the goal of the organization was to move up to and reach an overall school letter grade of “C”. This school year, the aim was to move up to and reach a letter grade of “B”. The principal set this letter grade goal, believing it was completely within the realm of possibility because the school missed that “C” letter grade in the 2008-2009 school year by two points. While the numbers were not as far to reach, many teachers believed it might be very difficult to reach this grade because the continuous disruptive student behavior in and out of the classroom. Even many experienced teachers felt there was a lack of administrative support when dealing with student misbehavior and because of this found it difficult to convey the learning necessary for adequate comprehension and growth.

Holistically speaking (for now), if disruptive student behavior could be curbed, this would improve the negative attitudes teachers have towards making gains with their students. Then, because budget is always an issue, rather than use multiple programs and safety nets in an attempt to reach students, one or two programs could be focused on that would address the needs of the lower quartile math and reading students. If students performed better because the appropriate safety nets are being used, this would increase student motivation and parent participation because learning would be taking place and excitement for school would redevelop. The next step would be to identify the appropriate safety nets that would do just that and improve learning.



I attempted to copy and past my updates for module 1 into this page, but the font wasn't showing up, so I had to post it as an attachment for all to view it. Sorry the writing is not directly on this page like before for easier viewing.