Popular learning system spreads to all district schools after its successful introduction at Hallett Elementary
By RYAN LANCASTER
Staff Reporter
Mathmatics test scores are improving among many Medical Lake students thanks to ALEKS, a Web-based assessment and learning system now being used in several classrooms.
In November an initial group of 15 fourth-grade students at Hallett Elementary was introduced to ALEKS, which stands for Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces. After three months of working with the program for short periods every day, their average test scores improved by nine points, two points above the average rate of growth for an entire year of fourth grade math classes.
“You can't base your whole testimony on one data point but it's pretty exciting,” Hallett Elementary principal Dan Mueller told the Medical Lake school board in a presentation last month. “Ideally we would like to buy a program for each youngster but it's not there yet.”
Mueller said the school has now purchased about 100 full ALEKS program licenses, which cost about $40 each. The school's four fourth grade teachers have been taking turns helping students with the program, targeting those who are falling behind in math as well as some who are ahead of the class. “Quick Tables,” a less expensive version of the program that works on basic math facts like addition, multiplication and division, is also available to every student in the school, grades 3 through 6.
The ALEKS system determines a student's initial level of knowledge before offering them a number of math topics to work on, depending on their skill level. There's an “explain button” so students can help themselves if a teacher isn't available, and when students progress they're rewarded with math games. As students work through a course they can instantly see their rate of progress in any area by way of a pie chart and the program periodically reassesses their understanding to assure retention.
Math coach Stormy Weathers has used the program for three years and brought it with him from his previous position at the middle school. He said kids seem to like ALEKS for its tailored approach. “In a normal classroom setting the teacher has to teach in the middle, there are kids that get it and kids that don't,” he said. “This hits them right where they're at, every single student.”
The other positive is that since ALEKS is Web-based it can be accessed anywhere and anytime. “A lot of parents can get involved with this. You don't have to know anything about math, all you have to do is read through these explanations and see that they're progressing,” Weathers said, adding that teachers can also track progress in real time and decide when a pop quiz can pop up.
All schools in the district now have at least a few students using ALEKS, which can run any course from basic third-grade math to high school calculus. Weathers said because of the initial success at Hallett, all special education students in the district are now on the full ALEKS program as well as 23 advanced math students.
“I would say that (students working with ALEKS) have improved their test scores on average by 10 percent and the normal growth rate is about 5 percent,” Weathers said. “We now have kids working above their grade level, with one sixth-grader now in a ninth-grade algebra course… It's a tremendous program.”
Ryan Lancaster can be reached at ryan@cheneyfreepress.com.
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