Can At-Risk Students Meet AYP Goals in Just One Year?

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Download the Case Study (PDF, 604 KB)

Can At-Risk Students Meet AYP Goals
in Just One Year?

by Carol Seibert

"Writing well is not just an option for young people—it is a necessity. Along with reading comprehension, writing skill is a predictor of academic success and a basic requirement for participation in civic life and in the global economy."

Graham & Perin, Writing Next (2007)*

Response to Intervention Model

In 2006, Dr. John Krewer, the Superintendent and his administrators set out to find the right literacy resource for their at-risk and special education students. They wanted resources to support their RtI (Response to Intervention) initiative and to increase their students' overall language arts skills. Their goal was to improve the skills of their under-performers and ultimately increase AYP in two years.

Today they celebrate increased student outcomes in their middle and high schools and have begun to implement the program in their elementary school. How did they do it?

2006/2007 Language Arts Objective

Improvement in meeting mastery objectives aligned with the New Jersey Core Content Curriculum Standards, as reflected by an average increase of .5 in specific, targeted NJ state assessment scores of students in grades six through twelve.

The Plan

Optimize students’ learning opportunities through extended writing practice in a Response to Intervention model.

The Questions

In their search for the most effective tool to achieve these objectives, Spotswood administrators and teachers asked these questions about the programs they reviewed and considered:

Does the program advance the mission of all children learning well?

Does the program complement the ways our teachers teach?

Does the program accommodate differences in how students learn?

Is it affordable and cost effective?

Will it accelerate the “rate” at which students learn and master skills?

Will it reflect the response to intervention design?

Will students have transferable skills?

The Answer

The team unanimously agreed that SOLO® Literacy Suite by Don Johnston was the answer for their at-risk and special education students.

The Results

Middle School Meets AYP Goal for At-Risk Students

Both middle and high schools met their objective—for two out of three goals, meeting a two-year goal in just ONE year! The district attributes these impressive results to the culmination of dedicated staff effort, curriculum renewal, professional development and implementation of SOLO.

Read the case study (PDF, 604 KB) for details of the amazing results.

Go to the Source!

As educators, we constantly guide our learners to seek out the primary source of information. There is no substitute for the words of the folks with direct knowledge and experience of an event, so we have “gone to the source” and made their words available for your consideration. We know you will be excited and impressed by their story, and hope that you will find valuable information and ideas for providing increased success for YOUR struggling learners!

Links to Watch, Listen to and Share

Watch this 3 minute Spotswood video clip

Watch the Spotswood Technology Director share his perspective about the training and technology support he received from Don Johnston

Email Dr. John Krewer, Superintendent at jkrewer@spotswood.k12.nj.us

Read the Spotswood Case Study (PDF, 604 KB)

* Reading Next Report (2007) (PDF)

Moving Forward with Technology, Free webinar series in collaboration with CITEd: upcoming sessions

Moving Foward with Technology, RtI Topics from the Archives

Value-add resources and SOLO tools to support YOUR Response to Intervention (RtI) and Literacy initiatives / at no cost to you!

RtI Computer Lab Schedule

Are you planning how to use available technology effectively to support your Response to Intervention initiative? This tool will help you organize your computer lab time so that learners at Tiers 1, 2 and 3 receive the learning intervention time they need. Check out this great schedule as a useful tool to include in your plan!

SOLO Supportive Guides

SOLO Overview Video - See SOLO Literacy Suite in action with students.

SOLO School Administrator's Handbook

Anyone who is committed to improving learner achievement should read this overview of real solutions to address real challenges in real classrooms. This handbook is for school administrators who use—or are thinking about using—SOLO in their schools.

Set up a FREE Interactive SOLO Demonstration

State Literacy Standards and SOLO alignments

See how the SOLO Literacy Suite supports your own state learning standards.

SOLO Learning Resources

Downloadable SOLO Assignment Templates and Co:Writer Topic Dictionaries

Assignments, Topic Dictionaries, reading/writing guides to fit all areas of your curriculum!

SOLO Quick Start Guide for Teachers

New to SOLO? Use this Quick Start Guide designed to get you up and running fast so you can focus on improving struggling learners’ achievement instead of learning a new software tool.

SOLO Quick Card – How Tos for Teachers

Create and manage SOLO assignments and data easily using these simple instructions for performing the most-frequently used SOLO functions in Teacher Central.

Research

NCTI Case Study (PDF, 1.2 MB)

National Center for Technology Innovation (NCTI) “quasi-experiment” and research study in which proven writing strategies paired with SOLO’s innovative technologies increased student outcomes (on average) 24% for low, middle and high performers

Fairfax Case Study (PDF, 560 KB)

Self-empowered elementary and middle school students take responsibility for learning, thinking, writing good essays and “Building Wings” during Fairfax, Virginia summer writing camps

SOLO Reading Whitepaper (PDF)

The scientific-based research underlying Read:OutLoud and SOLO