BELLVILLE, Ohio–The use of an online literacy tool for fourth through twelfth graders called “WriteToLearn” was one of the main topics of discussion at the Clear Fork Valley Local Schools Board of Education’s special meeting Wednesday evening.
Stacey Swank, curriculum director, opened the discussion by noting, “There is a huge writing component in the PARCC tests. WriteToLearn addresses that writing component more effectively than just teacher-taught.”
She said that through this program, students are given suggestions on how to improve their writing within two seconds or less of submitting their essays, which are graded according to six different writing traits, she said.
“They’re graded according to spelling, themes, if [the students] are using repetition it picks that out of their essay–it’s actually very cool,” she said.
The program was developed by Pearson about eight-10 years ago, she said.
“In WriteToLearn, typically the students write an essay a month,” she said. “It can also be integrated into science and social studies. There are science and social studies articles on the site where the students are taught how to write a good summary without plagiarizing.”
She saw how the program can be utilized while visiting Wooster City Schools.
She said that she would like to implement the program at the seventh through twelfth grade levels “because I think right now that is where the greatest need is for writing. Our kids have got to develop their writing skills,” she said.
Board member Jason Snyder said, “I can see some pros, but I see a lot of cons to this whole program. I understand some factors to help teachers out and get things done, but I have a real issue with this–I don’t know if it’s just because it’s by Pearson again or what honestly. I’d like to see what else is out there, and if there’s nothing else, I don’t think we need to jump the gun right away.”
Board member Jim Klenk asked about the students’ average ACT writing score for the last five years. He said, “If our average is between 19 and 22, which I’m guessing it is, I will vote for [this program].
“We’ve got to do something to improve student achievement at the secondary level,” he said.
“If it’s a tool to help teachers streamline and quickly give feedback to kids on how to improve their grammar, improve their sentence structure, and improve their language so that they can more conveniently and effectively communicate their creativity, then I’m in favor it–if you can show the data and the cost makes sense,” said Board President Jim DeSanto.
On a separate note, Swank said, “Our six through twelfth grade math materials are 20 years old. With the new learning standards in math, our textbooks do not address that, so our six through twelfth grade teachers have come and requested materials to help them with the new learning standards.”
She said they haven’t been able to update their materials due to lack of money.
“For the record, we want to make this the best learning environment that we can for kids,” said Superintendent Janice Wyckoff.
She said, “We’ve put curriculum on a rotation–this year we’re trying to get math, I think next year’s language arts…We’ve got it on a five-year rotation so that our kids no longer miss out.”
In other news, Cindy Kochheiser, director of technology, discussed the two-year technology purchasing plan.
“The goal that we have in technology is to bridge the gap in kindergarten through twelfth grade,” she said.
“We know now that iPads are a great learning tool for students, but preferable for the younger students. We feel that now that we’ve had the experience of the Chromebooks, they’re more appropriate for sixth through eighth grade, so we kept that in mind as we built this plan and we’re proposing to purchase Chromebooks for the ’15-’16 school year for eighth grade.”
She said the high school will need 55 new Chromebooks to make up the difference in student numbers and the middle school will need 135 Chromebooks and cases.
The proposal includes purchasing a cart of Chromebooks for each grade level at each elementary, “so that would give 90 Chromebooks to Bellville [Elementary School] and 90 for Butler [Elementary School],” she said.
“And then our oldest set of iPads will be three years old–they would go down to the kindergarten through second grade levels, so there would be a cart of iPads for every class, kindergarten through second grade, in each elementary building,” she said.
She said, “The casino budget has $85,000 in it, and there’s $73,000 left in the technology budget, and that would cover the $131,000 to make this purchase happen.”
Also as part of the meeting, Wyckoff distributed a resolution that she drafted to the board members, noting, “This is not directly against PARCC. It’s against the statewide accountability system in the one size fits all perspective. This is about saying our kids are individuals and that they should not be put into that one size fits all.”
She wanted to ensure the board had enough time to read over the resolution before discussing it in greater detail at the next board of education meeting, which will be held April 9.
The PARCC resolution draft may be viewed in the attached PDF file of the Clear Fork Local Schools Board of Education Agenda for the upcoming meeting.
The agenda for the upcoming board meeting outlines the proposed PARCC resolution.