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Computer-Aided Instruction in Mathematics: Improving Performance in an Inner-City School Serving Mainly English Language Learners

Tom Trautman Ed.D.
The American Education Corporation

Quincy Howe Ph.D.
St. Pius V School

Abstract

Achievement of students in urban schools has long been a concern for educators in the United States. A National Center for Educational Statistics report in 2004 (NCES, 2004) showed how the National Assessment of educational progress (NAEP) mathematics assessment results for the nation's major urban areas were below the country as a whole. This study reports on the results in one urban school as they implemented a computer-aided instruction program to supplement mathematics instruction. The intervention focused on the use of the A+dvanced Learning System and HeartBeeps® to individualize supplementary instruction. Results showed that the school's achievement as compared to national norms increased over successive years. To read this report in its entirety, St. Pius V School Report PDF

Support for HeartBeeps curriculum-based formative and summative assessments

From the National School Boards Association:

"With the current push for improving education, there is increased demand for accountability on the part of all players in the education structures. Accountability and assessment go hand-in-hand. Traditionally, assessment has been used as an end-of-the-line method of measuring success. The results have been used to justify either approval of or disdain for current practices in any particular classroom, school or district. In the framework of systemic change and continuous improvement, assessment is used to provide useful feedback on current practices and to point out areas for adjustment and enhancements. It is a tool for both those doing the assessing and those being assessed. As such, assessment is a key component in educational governance and practice and is itself continually evolving to meet the needs of the evolving educational context."1

From the Center for Public Education:

• Most states (43 out of 50) use required statewide tests that are custom-designed to match state standards.
  
• Purchasers of HeartBeeps software are provided with curriculum alignments that show exactly how HeartBeeps content addresses state standards.
• In high-performing, low-income schools, research shows that ongoing assessment in the school and classrooms allows teachers to individualize instruction for students. Higher levels of student achievement are reached by assessing students, determining where they need help, and modifying the instruction to meet student needs.2
• HeartBeeps formative assessments can be used at the beginning of the school year for leveling purposes and throughout the year to determine whether students have mastered key concepts. Teachers can use the Manager functions to customize student access to subjects and target areas.
• Systems are most successful when curriculum is aligned with instruction and assessment. "Making sure that instruction follows established standards or curriculum ensures that students are taught the material they will need to be successful at their grade level."3
• Because HeartBeeps content is aligned with state curriculum standards, the formative programs can be seamlessly integrated with classroom instruction, while the summative programs can be used to evaluate student progress.
• Testing and the general idea of "accountability" are supported by a majority of the public. Approximately 71 percent agree that annual mandatory testing is a necessary indicator of how a school is performing. In a recent poll, 57 percent of those surveyed responded that the current amount/number of tests are "about right" or "not enough."4
• Not only is HeartBeeps software a valuable tool for acclimating students to the testing environment, it can give teachers and administrators an advance look at how student populations are likely to perform on standardized tests.
• With regard to high-stakes testing, some research has found that student performance on state and other tests are improved when accountability measures are linked to test scores.5
• HeartBeeps software provides one way of determining whether students are prepared for such tests.
• Instruction affects performance on high-stakes tests in three main ways:
  
  
  1. Teaching to the test can be positive if the curriculum is focused and aligned; negative if instruction consists only of test-item memorization.
  2. Recent studies show that high-stakes testing can increase student learning under the right conditions, suggesting that teachers can both prepare students for tests and help students achieve true understanding of the underlying concepts.
  3. Using test results to shape classroom instruction, in combination with curriculum aligned to state standards, will increase test scores more than just focusing on test-taking strategies.6
• Because simply focusing on rote memorization or test-taking skills is not enough, HeartBeeps provides a variety of approaches to concepts so that students become better at the critical-thinking skills needed to perform well on standardized tests.
• A 2006 report from the Center for Public Education explains that assessment is "the essential ingredient of accountability and accountability is the key word in education today. NCLB mandates accountability for academic progress, using tests and assessments at the state level to monitor student progress toward 100 percent proficiency for all students by 2014. Because of this mandate, districts, schools, and teachers supplement the required tests with additional assessments throughout the year to monitor student learning and ensure that students can do well on state tests."7
• HeartBeeps software is one important way in which educators can monitor student learning.

The CPE report also defines formative assessment as providing "information about learning in process," consisting of tools such as "weekly quizzes, tests, and even essays given by teachers to their classes." The results of formative assessments can be used to track student progress and modify instructional strategies. Evidence shows that formative assessment is directly associated with "remarkable gains in student achievement."

Summative assessment, according to the same CPE report, "provokes most of the controversy about testing because it includes 'high-stakes, standardized' testing carried out by the states."8

Because the content is aligned with state curriculum standards, HeartBeeps summative programs can help prepare students to take standardized tests. The purpose of HeartBeeps summative assessments is to obtain an idea of how much students have learned at a particular stage: at year's end or as students prepare to take state-mandated tests.

HeartBeeps programs are criterion-referenced tests; that is, they are meant to compare student learning to state standards rather than to other students' achievement (as norm-referenced tests do).

According to the 2006 CPE report cited above, "criterion-referenced tests-sometimes, more correctly, called standards-based tests-begin from a state's standards, which list the knowledge and skills students are expected to learn. Because standards are usually far more numerous than could ever be included in a test, test designers work with teachers and content specialists to narrow down the standards to essential knowledge and skills at the grades to be tested. They are the basis for the development of test items."9

This description accurately describes the design and goals of HeartBeeps software programs.

From a 1993 article in Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation:

"Traditionally, assessment has been derived from the curriculum; however, assessment has not been part of a feedback loop linked to instruction. It is now widely believed that assessment must be an integral part of teaching, so that it is used as a tool not merely to collect data, but also to influence instruction. This requires developing and implementing assessment tasks that measure students' productivity, their performance on tasks that require mathematical thinking in pursuit of a result that has meaning to the student. Because these tasks have essentially the same character as instructional tasks, they also have meaning for teachers and, therefore, are useful for improving instruction."10

HeartBeeps software is a flexible tool that allows teachers to improve individual and classroom instruction exactly in this way. Teachers can use HeartBeeps to determine where students require extra instruction and tailor their approach to target these areas. Because all subjects are customizable and all language arts passages are printable, classroom uses for HeartBeeps are limited only by the teacher's imagination.

From a 2003 study in The Journal of Special Education:

Data obtained from regular formative assessment is useful in several ways as teachers and administrators make educational decisions:

1. screening to identify students working at the appropriate grade level;
2. evaluating what type of intervention is needed or appropriate;
3. determining whether students are eligible for remedial or special-education programs;
4. evaluating the effectiveness of classroom instructional techniques;
5. determining if students should be reintegrated into mainstream programs.

The study's author also points out that beyond these uses of formative assessment, "recent research has been conducted on using [formative assessment] to predict success in high-stakes assessment, to measure growth in content areas in secondary school programs, and to assess growth in early childhood programs."11

As this study suggests, tools like HeartBeeps formative assessment programs are valuable not only for leveling, but for tracking growth on multiple levels, evaluating teaching methods, and predicting student performance in standardized tests.

From a 1993 study in School Psychology Review:

• According to the researchers, educators can develop standards for weekly academic growth rates by assessing individual student progress over time, calculating progress directly from students' rates of improvement. Formative assessment coupled with individualized instruction "appears necessary" for optimal student growth.12
• Customizable HeartBeeps programs are perfectly suited for both formative assessment and instruction that is tailored to individual student needs.
• For mainstream classes, formative assessment can be used to measure each student's progress periodically on the appropriate curriculum. Using a tool like HeartBeeps, teachers can "identify students who are experiencing difficulty with the curriculum early in the year, when their weekly rates of growth fall below normative targets for growth." Students working below grade level can thus get specialized instruction; additionally, teachers can tell if struggling students represent a large or small proportion of the class population. If only a small group is identified as having trouble, formative assessment can be used to record individual rate of growth, show when goals have been met, and determine when adjustments to instruction are necessary. If the group is larger, formative assessment can help teachers "target their large- and small-group instruction to meet the needs of all students in the class more effectively." The authors suggest combining formative assessment with methods such as peer tutoring in order to differentiate instruction.13
• The HeartBeeps Manager program allows teachers to set mastery levels and view and print performance data not only for each student, but also for entire groups of students, so that class progress can be seen at a glance.
• The researchers assert that formative assessment "can be used to describe and account for student outcomes. By comparing individual weekly rates of growth to normative rates of improvement, judgments about the adequacy of individual progress can be formulated."14
• Again, HeartBeeps represents an effective way to measure individual progress and identify the need for remediation.
• Regular formative assessment allows teachers to compare student data across multiple points in the academic year. According to the researchers, "the traditional approach of district level, annual, one-shot testing on commercial standardized achievement tests provides limited information with which to describe change or to formulate improvements in instructional plans." In contrast, using regular formative assessment programs-such as HeartBeeps-"represents a potentially important contribution to a technology of measuring pupil progress, which can be used in a formative way to improve instruction and learning outcomes."15

References

1. National School Boards Association, http://www.nsba.org/sbot/toolkit/assess.html
2. The Center for Public Education, http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org.
   Note: Original research cited in this report.
3. Ibid.
4. The Center for Public Education, http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org.
   Note: Original research cited in this report.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. The Center for Public Education, http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org.
   Note: Original research cited in this report.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Pandey, Tej (1990). Authentic mathematics assessment. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 2(1). http://pareonline.net/getvn.asp?v=2&n=1
11. Deno, S.L. "Developments in Curriculum-Based Measurement," The Journal of Special Education, 2003, 37. 3., 184-192.
12. Fuchs, Lynn S., Fuchs, Douglas. "Formative Evaluation of Academic Progress: How Much Growth Can We Expect?" School Psychology Review, 1993, Vol. 22, Issue 1
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.