New innovations developed by ed-tech company School Improvement Network make it possible to elevate student assessment scores by as much as 20 percent in a single year.

New research helps to unveil the science of the school turnaround, revealing that improving schools dramatically isn’t about working miracles—it’s about having the right tools and the right focus.

Administrators today carry higher expectations on their shoulders than any generation before. With so much at stake, many school leaders question how they can possibly accomplish what’s being asked—to not only raise student achievement, but in some cases to double, triple, or quadruple student success rates.

However, research conducted by Dr. Steven Shaha of the Center for Public Policy and Administration shows that new innovations developed by ed-tech company School Improvement Network make it possible to elevate student assessment scores by as much as 20 percent in a single year. The numbers tell a story of dramatic, lasting improvement in student achievement being made every day, all over the country.

Dr. Shaha’s research is compiled in a study called “Predictors of Success,” where student outcomes in 734 schools in 211 districts across 39 states were analyzed year over year to measure the impact of School Improvement Network’s educator effectiveness system on student learning and educator effectiveness.

The results show that whenever educators used the tools effectively in the educator effectiveness system, student test scores increased many times over, year after year.

(Next page: What the research says)

“This is a great asset that I would highly recommend to anyone in a computer lab situation,” one teacher said.

NetSupport School is a classroom management software program that gives teachers the ability to instruct and visually or audibly monitor, as well as interact with, their students—either individually, as a pre-defined group, or with the whole class.

Rising to the challenges and requirements of today’s modern classroom, NetSupport School enables teachers to deliver lesson content, simultaneously monitor all student PCs, and work collaboratively, ensuring that complete student attention and focus is maintained at all times.

There are no hidden extras; all features are included as standard benefits, including a customized testing suite, dedicated technician console, digital student revision aids, lesson planning tools, and the option for teachers to reward students for good effort.

“Since using NetSupport School, we are able to keep the students more focused on their task during the short time frame that we have them each week. When they come in, I have the computers locked down so that I have their full attention while giving them instructions for their daily lessons. Then when I unlock them, I can monitor them from one central location without the fear of [students] going off track. 

“NetSupport has also been a great resource for being able to demonstrate new lessons and activities from my computer to theirs. This also helps in time management when the students don’t even have to look away from their monitors to get instruction. One of the most valuable assets, I feel, is the ability to control each student’s computer. This is great for individual help with a student or to be able to control that off-task student. There are many other great features, such as the test module and lesson plan module. This is a great asset that I would highly recommend to anyone in a computer lab situation.”

—A teacher at Stanford Elementary School in Kentucky

(Next page: How the latest version helps teachers with assessment)

Schools must be proactive in securing the funds to sustain ed-tech initiatives.

Involving the community, identifying backup revenue sources, and dedicating time and resources for professional development are the keys to sustaining technology funding and ed-tech initiatives, according to a survey conducted by the nonprofit Digital Wish.

The Digital Wish Study on Sustainability, co-authored by Digital Wish Executive Director Heather Chirtea and School Modernization Initiative (SMI) Program Manager Eric Bird, examines how schools approach the often complicated matter of technology funding.

Digital Wish launched SMI, a one-to-one computing program, in 2009. The initiative involved 28 schools and 1,294 students in grades 4-6, and it gave curriculum and training to 79 teachers. At the end of the program’s first year, school leaders turned to the challenge of sustaining this initiative, and the A.D. Henderson Foundation commissioned Digital Wish to examine how schools could do this successfully.

The foundation also tasked Digital Wish with developing free resources to spread best practices in sustaining ed-tech programs. The study included responses from administrators, IT specialists, media and curriculum coordinators, librarians, and teachers.

The survey results revealed that, when it comes to technology funding, the “most successful schools develop multiple sources of revenue, they trigger strong community engagement, and they prioritize daily support and training for teachers.”

(Next page: A breakdown of how successful ed-tech programs are funded)

In a series of interviews, technology leaders from several K-12 districts and universities shared their secrets for successful information management, reporting, and analytics projects. From those interviews, 10 best practices were revealed.

1. Securing executive sponsorship.

When taking on an information management, reporting, and analytics initiative, all the leaders agreed about the importance of securing strong executive sponsorship. It goes beyond just getting approval of a budget to purchase software. You also need to have executive sponsorship at the highest level – someone who fully understands the value that reporting and analytics can bring to the district or institution and has a vision for using it to transform school, program, and student outcomes for the better.

2. Identifying and involving stakeholders early and assessing their unique needs.

You will come across a wide variety of potential users, ranging from different internal users and the school board/board of regents to government bodies, media, parents, and the general public. These stakeholders can have vastly different skill sets and requirements. So it’s vital that you identify and engage these stakeholders early in the reporting and analytics planning process, view them as customers, and analyze and segment them.

“We have to think of students differently,” Brooks said—“as creators, researchers, investigators, and even designers.”

As blended learning programs grow in popularity, proponents of the approach—which involves a combination of computer-based learning and face-to-face instruction—say there are a few key considerations school leaders should keep in mind as they set up blended learning models.

Alabama’s Mountain Brook Schools is in its third year of a blended learning program.

“Education is really changing, and we’ve got to change with it—and in order to do that, we’ve really been working hard to … customize the learning of each one of our students,” said Missy Brooks, the district’s director of instruction, during a Consortium for School Networking webinar.

“Blended learning is not all about the technology—it really is a blend of technology and instruction, so that the two work hand-in-hand so that we can meet the needs of our students,” she said. The district’s leaders bear in mind that blended learning is facilitated by an effective and intentional combination of face-to-face classroom methods and computer-based activities.

For blended learning to be successful, Brooks said, teachers must be mindful of their intentions and should be purposeful about the work they design for students: They should be able to articulate exactly why they are using blended learning in a particular instance. And the more teachers come to know their students, the better they are able to tailor instruction to students’ needs and interests.

The computer software is one way the school system is meeting the federal requirement to have a certified teacher in every classroom.

Math teacher Rachel Hendrickson has the capability to teach every algebra class in Cumberland County, N.C., high schools at the same time: All it takes is a SMART Board, laptop, webcam, and a computer program that allows teachers to interact with students anywhere in the district.

SMART Bridgit, a conferencing software program, connects students with the class using a real-time video stream. The computer software is one way the school system is meeting the federal requirement to have a certified teacher in every classroom.

Superintendent Frank Till Jr. said the challenge to meet the federal requirements led to discussions about expanding the use of Bridgit in schools.

“We are in an era where just the use of the standard textbook is not meeting the students’ needs,” he said. “We do not want to limit our students. Technology allows us to do more.”

The school system paid $6,000 for the software. The initiative began as a pilot program last year at South View Middle School.

“It is dynamic instruction,” said Ruben Reyes, executive director of exceptional children services. “It allows you to interact.”

For more ed-tech best practices, see:

Tips and take-aways from a successful mobile learning program

Teachers: Involve parents in the flipped classroom, too

Best Practices in School Technology 

He added: “Most of the programs on the market, you see the teacher, you hear the teacher, but you are missing the content. This enables you to have the best of both worlds. Some of the programs, you have to have a physical lab set up. Anyone who is in our network can access this. This is something that can touch more kids.”

Reyes said the purpose of the program is not to replace teachers.

“This is really a tool to enable teachers to share their expertise,” he said. “Without the teacher, this tool doesn’t do anything.”

The initiative started as a way to ensure that all students have access to a highly qualified teacher. Because of federal requirements, special-education teachers must be certified to teach the content like any other teacher.

“What we wanted to do was use Bridgit as a means to ensure that the students had access and that they still had the level of special-education support that they needed,” Reyes said.

The certified teachers and exceptional children’s teachers meet weekly to discuss lessons that will be streamed. The exceptional children’s teacher is in the classroom during the live stream to aid students.

Student engagement saw a boost from the mobile learning program. (Photo from http://www.smriders.net/Mobile_Learning)

Starting small might be the key to success when it comes to deploying a mobile learning initiative, according to two educators whose district has implemented a successful mobile program that now reaches 500 students.

“We felt that if it was something that was going to catch on, we wanted to be sure that we started small and that it was as group of people who wanted to work at this,” said Kyle Menchhofer, technology director for the St. Marys City Schools district in Ohio. “Starting small was a very strong and successful part of why we are where we are at this time.”

In 2008, before smart phones caught on, the district started its pilot by purchasing personal digital assistants (PDAs). Eight teachers—two each from third, fourth, and fifth grade—and two resource teachers signed on to begin the program.

“The biggest thing is starting out small,” said Scott Newcomb, a fifth grade teacher in the district. “Sometimes, giving everyone an iPad is too much—the goal or objective might get lost.”

See also:

How to make BYOD work for your schools

Helping Students Learn with Reliable Wireless Connectivity

With mobile device management, schools can rest easier

The pilot team attended training sessions every three to four weeks, and Menchhofer said professional development was a priority above all else. The district also formed a team of teachers who experimented with the PDAs to discover new uses and classroom applications.

“We didn’t want to create additional work for our teachers,” Menchhofer said. “We didn’t want to make this a burden on our staff.”

In 2008, 155 students participated in the pilot, which included 120 PDAs and GoKnow software. Shortly after the pilot began, district IT staff discovered that the hardware company from which they purchased the PDAs decided to produce smart phones instead. By the spring of the pilot year, the district partnered with Verizon Wireless and had 30 smart phones to use in a trial program.

“Funding is an issue, but you have to set priorities,” Menchhofer said.

When students engage with other classrooms around the world, their effort is ‘through the roof.’

Think about it … what do kids want? What do you want? How about the chance to be masters of tasks, have lives with purpose, and have the choice of when, where, and how when it comes to engagement in learning and teaching?

The classroom is no longer a physical place. Perhaps it never has been. Learning is experiential and it occurs, usually not on schedule, but 24 hours a day. What does this mean in an age of Common Core standards and high-stakes testing? The Common Core standards seem to fit well with students’ need for critical thinking and higher-order thinking skills. I doubt that the high-stakes testing philosophy fits well at all. As a teacher, I can’t help but ask if it even fits anywhere!

One of the goals of a social studies curriculum is to ensure that students are aware of different cultures and geographies—including how these are similar to or different from their own. Social learning communities make this easy. They offer a window to the world.

I connect my students to classrooms and learning experiences all over the world. Like-minded teachers exist, and they also seek global collaboration. Social learning platforms are the perfect place for collaborating in real time through online workspaces. For instance, ePals offers internal blogs and links students with numerous entities, such as the Smithsonian.

Through the years, I have found that when my students use ePals to reach out to and engage with other classrooms, the level of excitement and effort is literally through the roof. Students tell me they actually care about what is going on in the classroom. They value the relationships they create with students across the globe. Students’ writing improves dramatically, because they know their global peers will be reading their assignments.

Speaking of the Smithsonian, we have just completed a project called the Extinction Project. It is a collaborative effort between my classroom and a set of classrooms in Singapore. Rose Manuel, the teacher leader of the Extinction Project, will join me and personnel from the Smithsonian in a Skype call that will span two continents and affect hundreds of students.

With the Extinction Project coming to full fruition, we now see our opportunity to launch the iSOLVE Project. This project, also housed in ePals, takes responsibility and good choices regarding conservation and endangered species to a new level. The iSOLVE Project actually lets students engage in conversations about how they cope and survive in their own daily lives, and additionally, how they save and protect each other through life’s trials and difficult times. We hope that this project is as powerful and helpful as we think it can be.

I work hard to paint a positive picture to get students on my side. And change can be scary! I explain that students will have less homework than they have ever had in a math class, how they will not be forced to listen to their teacher lecture for the majority of class, and how classroom time will be spent working with others and being active in their learning. I give the flipped class a hard sell – I want students to be excited about doing things they have never done before in a math classroom. And there are always a few things that shock them:

“We get to use our cell phones?”

Absolutely!

For more news about flipped learning, see:

New developments enhance school video use

How TED-Ed is helping to amplify instruction

The truth about flipped learning

How to make videos your students will love

“We move at our own pace in class?”

That’s right!

“We’re encouraged to talk in class?”

You bet!

This year marks my second year as a flipped classroom teacher. Now that my lesson videos are already created, I’m excited to focus on the finer points in my classroom. I spent significant effort explaining the flipped classroom to my students last year, so I decided that this year, I would educate their parents as well.

I got a chance to share this idea with many of my fellow education entrepreneurs at the recent White House Education Datapalooza event on October 9, which included special guests U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, and Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education Jim Shelton. It was our honor to present and learn about products, services and applications that have immense potential for advancing education achievement.

Digital tools make it possible for schools to go beyond the traditional gradebook. Yes, well-designed quizzes and demonstrated mastery of the new Common Core State Standards matter, but data doesn’t stop there.

Of the many innovations highlighted at the Education Datapalooza, the most promising were the ones building new data sets to uncover trends and insights in student achievement. Everfi, for example, captures data about student perceptions towards personal finance through game-based assessment. Knewton’s adaptive learning platform catches student misconceptions at a micro level as they progress through media-rich content. Gallup’s StrengthsFinder identifies students’ intrinsic talents, helping students navigate successfully from school to career.

And with Kickboard, teachers are keeping track of other factors that were historically (and sometimes mysteriously) rolled into the overall grade on a report card – class participation, timeliness and completion of work.

Keeping track of students’ character development and learning habits – and taking into account the process and thinking behind completing a task, not just whether they got it “right” – is essential to personalizing learning.