Montgomery County District adopts handheld-to-Web assessment tool for early learners: palmOne and Wireless Generation team up for new approach to reading diagnostics.

Half the challenge to meeting No Child Left Behind (NCLB)-mandated reading achievement levels is making assessments reliable, accessible and easy to administer, says Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) Superintendent Dr. Jerry D. Weast, "We went to a great deal of trouble and expense to make assessments reliable and predictable," he says, "but eventually we hit a wall. Our assessments were very labor intensive and the data were not particularly accessible. We needed to figure out how to improve the quality of assessments as well as how to decrease the intrusive and time-consuming nature of [testing]. We did that with well-trained teachers, great curriculum and fast, handheld computer-based assessments."

IT IS A MATTER OF SOME URGENCY at most school districts, and none more so than at districts that have a high degree of minority and ESL populations, to improve and refine how assessments are given and data accessed, particularly with the pressure to bring all children to improved levels before the 2nd grade federal-mandated testing is administered.

MCPS is a good example of a district that is creatively attacking the challenge with early assessment tools that are helping teachers in K-2 prepare students for the tests. In a unique partnership with Wireless Generation (www.wirelessgeneration.com), a provider of handheld-to-Web software solutions for Pre K-12 observational assessments, and MCPS (www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org), one of the nation's highest performing school districts, new handheld computer-based assessment software is being implemented. The implications for a district of MCPS' diversity and size, says Superintendent Weast, are considerable.

Montgomery County (MD) is a suburban and metropolitan district on Washington, D.C.'s northwest border. With 140,000 students--56 percent minority, 22 percent in free- or reduced-price meal programs--spread across the district's 500 square miles, the district is proud of its high school graduation rate of 92 percent, notes Superintendent Weast. "But our district is changing dramatically in terms of the makeup of new families moving here. In the part of our county most impacted by poverty, 80 percent of the children in pre-K through 2nd grade are minorities, up from 69 percent in 2000, so the challenges we have are constant and urgent. I should add that 127 languages are spoken by students in MCPS so there's no single answer to reaching our goals but we're moving forward on a number of fronts."

The assessment tool--a Wireless Generation/MCPS developed software program using the Palm OS platform--is a big step in that direction. It's called mCLASS:Reading 3D and is an enhanced version of Wireless Generation's successful mCLASS:Reading software. According to Wireless Generation CEO and Co-Founder Larry Berger, "The program delivers a breakthrough pairing of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) with balanced literacy's deep diagnostic inventories refined over years of use in MCPS schools. Bottom line, it puts a remarkable inventory of reading assessment methods at teachers' fingertips."

The pairing of DIBELS and balanced literacy measures is targeted to help teachers teach reading in grades K-3, adds Superintendent Weast. "The challenge with little kids is that it's inappropriate to test them in groups," he adds. "It has to be one-to-one in order to be effective and now the teachers have the tools."

After a successful pilot program involving 19 elementary schools during the 2004-2005 school year, all 125 of the district's elementary schools will have hundreds of palmOne handheld computers preloaded with the software by September 2005, says John Q. Porter, Deputy Superintendent of Strategic Technologies and Accountability (MCPS), though he admits that he didn't know what would happen when the units were first introduced. "I didn't really know what to expect," he says, "but the assessment tools in use prior to this changeover were inadequate to the task. They required teachers using paper and pencil, tabulation, keying in, 100 percent accuracy, and then waiting for access to the data, sometimes for days or weeks. The teachers had to listen to the students read and make a handwritten notation at the same time, turn it in to the data-entry office and wait for results. I started thinking about solutions and the superintendent suggested that we look into handhelds."

The software incorporates phonics, phonemic awareness and fluency assessments with print concepts, sight words, reading records, and comprehension measures. Educators can perform benchmark assessments three times a year, administering DIBELS and reading records using Rigby books. They can also conduct ongoing progress using DIBELS for at-risk students, and balanced literacy measures for students at or above benchmark on a regular basis.

"We were simply wearing out our teachers with assessments," agrees Superintendent Weast, "and I knew that technology was the answer, I just didn't know what form it would take. This is all about time and efficiency. And we had to make it work better for the teachers and administrators than the [manual] assessments. To use DIBELS assessments you needed a stopwatch and pencil and plenty of time." (One unanticipated benefit: since teachers don't need to time students when they take assessments--the handheld programs take care of that--the district has saved money in stopwatch purchases.)

In any case, it's working. At one pilot school--East Silver Springs Elementary School in Silver Springs (MD)--Principal Niki Hazel cites the introduction of palmOne handhelds as critical to her ability to help her Pre K-2 teachers identify and assist students who need specific help. Since the data are uploaded daily to a server and served back in easily read formats and charts with guidance on interpreting data and using it in the classroom, teachers can adjust lessons to fit student needs.

"When I look at the data, it's not a 'gotcha' situation at all," she says. "Rather it gives me an ability to look over the student data on a daily or weekly basis, assess where there might be an opportunity to work with teachers to identify and, if necessary, intervene with one or more students who are having problems with an element of reading or comprehension."

The way it works, says Amanda Vogt, a kindergarten teacher at East Silver Springs Elementary School, is she interacts one-on-one with each student three times a year on reading assessments using an easy-to-use, prompt-driven program on her handheld. Each assessment takes two to three minutes which amounts to no more than 15-20 minutes in total assessment time. "I get an immediate picture of the entire classroom that I can share with other teachers, reading specialists and administrators," says Vogt. "I can give assessments, create new reading groups, and the class makes faster progress as a result."

In fact, Superintendent Weast says, the quick turnaround of the data is critical to the program's efficacy. "Giving teachers more time has an immediate impact on creating a good teaching and learning environment. This enables the teacher to do diagnostics more quicker and more accurately. That translates to more time for teaching, not paperwork. This really fulfills the definition of the perfect support tool."