Matthew Long Final Grant Application

Needs Assessment
Shanksville-Stonycreek School District (SSSD) is a single-building district that serves 388 students in grades Pre-K through 12. The district serves the communities of Indian Lake, Shanksville, and Stonycreek Township in rural southwestern Pennsylvania. The student population includes 26% enrolled in the free or reduced lunch program and 15% who receive special education services. The educational technology section of SSSDs Strategic Plan states that the district is continually implementing new equipment, software, services, and resources to improve student achievement, experiences, and the potential for success. Evidence of student achievement over the past few years has shown that students are not making significant and necessary improvement. Students in grades 3-8 and 11 take the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) tests to measure student achievement in the areas of math and reading. SSSD students have met 18 of 20 Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals for math over the past five years. A minimum percentage of the student population must receive a passing score for a school to meet the goal. The district has met 13 of 20 Reading AYP goals during the same period.

Grade 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 6 78% 70% 93% 93% 71% 7 82% 76% 76% 87% 100% 8 80% 91% 79% 76% 88% 11 64% 65% 58% 63% 85% AYP Goal 56% 56% 56% 67% 78% Table 1. The percentage of students who passed the math section of the PSSA tests.

Grade 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 6 81% 59% 72% 76% 46% 7 85% 68% 59% 77% 89% 8 91% 94% 92% 74% 82% 11 67% 59% 59% 68% 59% AYP Goal 63% 63% 63% 72% 81% Table 2. The percentage of students who passed the reading section of the PSSA tests. The districts middle school and high school have attained AYP through other methods of measure when AYP goal percentages were not met. However, in 2011-12 a SSSD school did not meet AYP through any method of measure for the first time. The high school is now on warning status because of low eleventh grade reading scores. The coming years pose a large challenge to SSSD. AYP goals rise to 91% in reading and 89% in math for the 2012-13 school year. SSSD students have obtained these percentages only four times in math and three times in reading over the past five years. 2013-14 and beyond will require 100% of students to pass for a school to meet AYP. Intervention programs are in place for both math and English. SSSD offers three periods of math intervention per day for grades six through twelve. The intervention class is in addition to a grade-level math class, and its purpose is to remediate the students math skills. Students chosen to participate did not receive a passing score on the PSSA math section the previous year. Currently20 students are involved in the math intervention program. Of these students, 35% have an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) that addresses specific math needs. English intervention is offered one period per day for grades six through twelve. Selection for the class adheres to the same criteria as math but students work on reading and writing skills. The English intervention program currently works with 12 students. 8% of these students have an IEP that addresses specific reading or writing needs.

These data show that an innovative approach to identifying conceptual weaknesses and providing effective intervention is a significant need for SSSD. Since the percentage of students expected to pass the PSSA tests increases each year, teachers in all classrooms need to increase the amount of formative evaluation. This type of evaluation allows teachers to identify and address conceptual weaknesses throughout a lesson. Instructional adjustments that result from using formative evaluation will help close learning gaps and increase PSSA test scores. Promethean ActivClassrooms are in place throughout the building. Adding ActivEngage in math and reading classrooms will facilitate formative evaluation and allow intervention to be more effective. This software allows students to use their own electronic devices to answer questions posed by the teacher. This software can display the results on screen and keeps detailed records of individuals answers. These results will allow teachers to address conceptual weaknesses and misunderstandings. Intervention teachers can use the records to identify the skills each student needs to work on. Implementing this software will allow SSSD students to improve not only their achievement scores but also their potential for success in the future.

Goals and Objectives

Goal: All students in grades 6-8 will pass the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) math and reading tests in 2015. Objective: To increase the percentage of grades 6-8 reading and math classes using ActivEngage software for formative evaluation to 100% by the end of October 2013. Formative evaluation allows teachers to assess student comprehension during a lesson. One common type of formative evaluation currently used is asking students to raise their hands to signify what they believe the correct answer is with provided answer choices. Other regularly used methods include teachers asking each student what they believe the answer is or circulating

around the room to look at the work of each individual. These methods provide teachers with a general idea of student comprehension but can be time consuming and yield an inaccurate view of student understanding. Individuals can use previously mentioned answers when each student is giving a verbal answer. Seeing most of their peers hands raised can sway the answer a student raises their hand for, even if they got a different answer. ActivEngage addresses these concerns by having each student input their answer using an electronic device. Teachers get instant results for each student and the entire class as a whole. Identification of weaknesses in understanding is immediate. Teachers can then review and reteach the needed concepts. The first task in implementing the grant will be introducing the ActivEngage software to the faculty during a mandatory in-service in August 2013. The Shanksville-Stonycreek School District technology director will provide an overview of ActivEngage. ActivEngage is a virtual Student Response System (SRS) that allows students to contribute to a classroom discussion by responding to questions with laptops, tablets, or mobile handheld devices. It differs from other SRSs that require the purchase of costly handheld devices designed specifically for the system. ActivEngage instead allows students to use their own electronic devices. This eliminates any learning curve associated with learning how to use the device. SSSD has a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy to allow students to use their own electronic devices. This policy currently only applies to students in grades 9-12 but will be expanded to include grades 6-8 for the 2013-2014 school year. Wireless hardware and networks are already in place to serve these devices. For students who do not have their own electronic device, the district has laptops they can use. After the faculty has completed setting up ActivEngage on their laptops, they will take turns using the software in a mock class setting with their peers as the students. This will allow

them to take on the roles of teacher and learner so they can see how the software functions from both perspectives. This presentation will ensure the entire faculty is both aware of the software and is comfortable using it. When the school year begins, ongoing in-house support will be available every other Tuesday during faculty technology meetings. The technology director and resource teachers will provide the support. These meetings will provide opportunities to address technical issues and allow for the sharing of ideas. Promethean also provides a free database of guides and frequently asked questions related to the software. The expectation is that reading and math teachers will use ActivEngage at least twice a week in their sixth through eighth grade classes by the end of October. Because each individual device gets its own license, use of ActivEngage will not be restricted to reading and math. Other content areas will be encouraged to use ActivEngage as well. Objective: By the end of November 2013, student engagement in reading and math classes in grades 6-8 will increase by 15%. Students who actively participate in class are more likely to be high achievers (Mijatovic & Jednak, 2011). Some subjects though, such as math, lend themselves to a lecture format that can result in passive learning. Struggling students also, generally, are not active participants in class because of not wanting to feel stupid by giving a wrong answer. SRSs, such as ActivEngage, help alleviate these fears while actively engaging students in the learning process. ActivEngage displays student answers anonymously on the screen viewable by the class. Teachers, however, can view and save results that associate a student with his/her answers. Sharing these results with intervention teachers provides insight into a students learning progress and areas of current weakness. Also, because students know a question might be asked

and they are accountable for answering each question, they tend to listen more attentively (Ulrich, 2006). The technology director and resource teachers will focus on lesson design during the faculty technology meetings in September and October. Through demonstrations and example lessons, teachers will experience first-hand how ActivEngage boosts learner engagement. As teachers begin integrating ActivEngage into their lessons, they will share their experiences with their colleagues. This collective knowledge will help establish best practices for using ActivEngage in SSSD classrooms. Objective: To increase the percentage of students receiving a passing score on the 2014 PSSA math test to 95% in each targeted grade. Objective: To increase the percentage of students receiving a passing score on the 2014 PSSA reading test to 92% in each targeted grade. AYP academic performance goals will continue to rise until 2014 when all students will be expected to receive a passing score on the PSSA tests. SSSD has only met that goal once in the past five years. The seventh grade achieved this goal on the PSSA math test in 2011-2012. The 2014 goal is for all grade levels for both the reading and math tests. SSSD will use ActivEngage in reading and math classes throughout the 2013-2014 school year. Research shows that using SRSs has a positive effect on student achievement on final exams (Yourstone, Kraye, & Albaum, 2008). The PSSA tests serve as a form of standardized final exam and as such, increased achievement is expected. ActivEngage will provide a type of formative evaluation that will help students take an active role in their learning. Classroom and intervention teachers will be in consistent contact

about formative evaluation results. This will ensure conceptual weaknesses are being addressed with students who have previously performed poorly on the PSSA tests.

Budget
Promethean ActivEngage Perpetual Licenses Resource Teacher Stipend Total Cost $25 per license x 175 licenses = $4,648.27 (includes tax & shipping) $115 per teacher x 3 teachers = $345 $4,993.27

Evaluation
Process evaluation
Activity Purchase of Promethean ActivEngage licenses Evaluation Purchase order Delivery receipt Record of serial numbers for licenses Teacher sign-in sheets Online evaluation forms

Provide professional development

Product evaluation
Activity Teacher utilization Evaluation Lesson plans Classroom observations Class summary reports Individual student reports Student survey pre- and post-use Teacher survey pre- and post-use 2014 PSSA results Comparison of 2014 PSSA scores to baseline data for each targeted grade to determine % increase

Increase student engagement Improve PSSA Reading and Math scores

The district technology coordinator will make a copy of the purchase order and delivery receipt to provide evidence of the Promethean ActivEngage licenses purchase. He will also record the serial numbers for each license in a document.

Since ActivEngage will be new educational software for SSSD, teachers will complete professional development for training and collaboration on how to incorporate the software into their instruction. During the summer of 2013, three teachers will complete a one-day training session run by the district technology coordinator. This session will cover how to setup and use the ActivEngage software. These teachers, referred to as resource teachers, will then assist the technology director in facilitating professional development sessions involving the entire juniorsenior high faculty. The first professional development session for the entire faculty will take place during the mandatory in-service prior to the start of school. Further sessions will occur on a bi-weekly basis until the end of November. Teachers can also go to the technology directory or resource teachers for ideas or support as needed. Teacher sign-in sheets and online evaluation forms will serve as evidence of the professional development sessions. All teachers will complete the evaluation forms at the end of each session. Those leading the training sessions will review the evaluation data after each session and use it to adapt future sessions to address needs. Teachers will provide evidence of implementing ActivEngage into their instruction through their lesson plans. By the end of November, teachers should be using ActivEngage in their lessons at least three days a week. The technology director and principal will monitor implementation progress by reviewing lesson plans and conducting classroom observations weekly. They will also meet once a month to discuss the progress. Reading and math teachers will generate weekly class summary reports and individual student reports. Reading and math intervention teachers will also have access to these reports. These reports will contain the ActivEngage voting results. Analysis of these reports will support

teachers in adjusting their classroom instruction to address the needs of students and raise standardized test scores. Both students and teachers in reading and math classes will complete an online survey regarding student engagement in class. This is scheduled for the last week of September, prior to full ActivEngage implementation. This survey will also be given the last week of October and November. The technology director and resource teachers will analyze the survey results. They will then share their findings with the faculty at the bi-weekly professional development sessions. September survey results will serve as the baseline data. The school will be looking for a 15% increase in student engagement in the November survey results. Another measure of effectiveness will be increased standardized test scores. The school will analyze the results of the 2014 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) Reading and Math tests. The baseline will come from 2013 data percentages. If a certain subsection (e.g., Grade 7 Math) does not meet the target percentage, a comparison of the baseline and 2014 data will take place to determine the percentage that test scores increased.

References
Mijatovic, I. and Jednak, S. (2011). Attitudes toward active participation as predictors of student achievement exploratory research from Serbia. New Educational Review, 24(2), 258270. Retrieved from http://www.springerlink.com/content/m50041622310/ Ulrich, C. (2006). Remote control devices activate learning. Human Ecology, 34(2), 20. Retrieved from http://www.educationalrev.us.edu.pl Yourstone, S.A., Kraye, H.S., and Albaum G. (2008). Classroom questioning with immediate electronic response: Do clickers improve learning? Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, 6(1), 75-88. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4609.2007.00166.x