Education Week - May 13, 2015 - 12

DIGITAL DIRECTIONS > Tracking news and ideas in educational technology
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Common-Core Tests Shaping Technical-Skills Lessons
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pencil tests are moving online.
"For our members, the biggest
thing is they don't want anything to
happen during the testing environment
that students haven't been
exposed to," said Christine Fox, the
director of educational leadership
and research for the State Educational
Technology Directors Association.
"Their primary concern is ensuring
that students have access to
these technology tools prior to sitting
down for online tests."
Setda advocates blending computer
skills seamlessly into instruction,
rather than teaching them in isolation.
Teachers and principals cited the
integrated approach as important,
too, but many reported still struggling
to reach that goal. In many cases,
children are still trooping to computer
labs to learn and practice rote skills,
typically because classrooms have too
few computers.
"What we need is for those skills
to be embedded in daily instruction,
and right now we're not there," said
David C. Estrop, the superintendent
of the Springfield, Ohio, school system.
He said the 7,900-student district
has added time to the school day
and calendar year, in part, to create
more content instruction time for the
largely low-income student population,
and, in part, to work on computer
skills for Ohio's common-core
test, the Partnership for Assessment
of Readiness for College and Careers,
or parcc. "Right now, the test is driving
instruction," he said.
Blended Approach
However, some schools have easily
blended content and computer skills.
Jenna Fabian, who teaches 4th and
5th grades at William H. Seward Elementary
School in Seward, Alaska,
said her students have been honing
their keyboarding skills while using
an online curriculum for computer
coding. That work prepared her students
well for the computer-based
Smarter Balanced common-core test,
she said.
"We didn't have to teach those [computer
test-taking] skills in isolation,"
she said. "It was part of the coding
curriculum, and it made delivery of
instruction more engaging for the
kids. When we started testing, my
students had minimal problems with
the tools themselves because they
were comfortable with them."
Few teachers disputed that 21st
century life requires students to have
strong computer skills. But some
noted that some online common-core
tests demand skills that are so specific
they have little value otherwise.
Spending classroom time teaching
those skills can spark resentment.
Tanya Golden, who teaches 6th
grade at the Carver Academy in Cerritos,
Calif., said she has used the
practice version of the Smarter Balanced
test to show her students how
to create fractions and exponents, or
use the online calculator, since the
A 1st grader practices keyboarding and other technical skills at Bayview Elementary School in San Pablo, Calif.
apply on a computer."
In response to the new digital demands,
many schools have started
keyboarding classes in earlier
grades.
At Orville C. Krause Elementary
School in Armada, Mich., administrators
added a technology "special,"
or rotating elective, into the schedule
two years ago for students as
young as kindergarten, said Kurt
Sutton, the principal who supervises
grades 3-5. It emphasizes keyboarding,
because teachers noticed that
children "could handle texting with
"Kids do have experience with
technology, but it's touch screen or
cellphone," said Emilie Knisley, the
principal of Blue Mountain Union
School, a K-12 school in rural Wells
River, Vt. "They can run an iPhone
like a champ, or the iPads we have
here at school. But they're not that
exposed to keyboarding skills or using
the mouse to move something up and
down on a screen."
Her school added a half-hour per
week of keyboarding time to the curriculum
this year, in the computer
lab, for students in 3rd, 4th, and 5th
grades, she said.
Denise Mikkonen, a 4th grade
teacher at Stone Ranch Elementary in
San Diego, asked her students to practice
typing by using a free online program
at home for 20 minutes, twice a
week, because she didn't want to sacrifice
the classroom time she spends
on math, reading, and other subjects.
Maya Johnson, 10, one of her students,
enjoys the program, which lets
her control an animated car's speed
with the speed of her typing.
"She loves it, and I think it's good
for her to learn," said Maya's mother,
Britni Johnson. "In real life, people
have to take tests online," she said,
adding that her husband's upcoming
law-school entrance exam will be
taken online. "Even if Maya works at
McDonald's, she'll probably have to
12 | EDUCATION WEEK | May 13, 2015 | www.edweek.org
"
I don't want to siphon
time away from
[reading and math]
with the typing skills.
It's a balancing act...
What I need is more
time in the school
day."
JOHN J. DECKER
Principal, Mellette Elementary School
Watertown, S.D.
their thumbs, but didn't do as well
with typing," he said. The school also
shifted a lot of students' work to the
Google platform, and began asking
3rd graders to create more online presentations
with tools such as Prezi.
Those shifts served two purposes:
preparation for online assessment,
and development of important school
and life skills, he said.
"I'd be lying to you if I said [online
assessment] wasn't part of it," Mr.
test's online tools require unique commands
for those functions.
"Of course, some computer skills
are valuable, like keyboarding, creating
multimedia projects, manipulating
programs they'd use in life and
school," she said. "But some stuff is
just for the test, and that's just plain
test prep. It's really the same as
teaching test-taking strategies, but
now it's on the computer. It's a complete
waste of time."
Many teachers are surprised to
find that their students-who are
so-called "digital natives"-are fluent
in some computer skills but weak in
others.
Sutton said. "But it's also preparing
students for what the real world is
going to expect of them."
In Rapid City, S.D., kindergarten
students are learning computer
skills during math-workshop time
in the classroom, said Deborah Warr,
the principal of Knollwood Heights
Elementary School. Using an online
math program, they learn to
move and click a mouse, and cut and
paste text. As they move through the
grades, they add more skills, integrated
into their core-content study,
Ms. Warr said.
"If we were trying to teach the tech
skills in isolation, there would be a
huge pushback [from teachers], but
we integrate them into other subjects,"
Ms. Warr said.
Cause and Effect
Even as schools prepare their students
for what the world -and online
testing-will require of them, the
tests themselves are shaping computer-based
instruction in classrooms.
Natalie Gordon, the principal of Jefferson
Middle School Academy in the
District of Columbia, said her students
have focused intensely on writing
this school year, and "are stronger
responding to text," but aren't used to
doing that on a computer, in a limited
time, as the parcc test requires.
"We're going to have to do more
next year with writing longer pieces
on the computer, because parcc demands
it," she said. "The trouble is
our keyboarding skills. It's a challenge
for students."
Elementary students in Great Falls,
Mt., are used to a multi-stage writing
process that begins with "prewriting,"
and proceeds through drafts, edits,
and revisions-all on paper-before
they sit down at the computer to type
final versions, said Bill Salonen, the
principal of Morningside Elementary
School. They do shorter writing assignments,
too, called "quick writes,"
with paper and pencil, he said.
But because the Smarter Balanced
assessment expects more "writing
in one shot" online, he's encouraging
teachers to shift their "quick writes"
to the computer, he said. He's suggested
to science and math teachers
that they ask students to write
assignments on the computer that
they'd ordinarily write in math notebooks
or science lab books, he said.
"We were heading this way with
writing anyway," Mr. Salonen said.
"What the test did is bring it a little
bit earlier."
He's had to acquaint his students
with some test-specific skills, too.
The week before Smarter Balanced
assessments began last month, Mr.
Salonen gathered together the 50
students his school enrolls at each
grade level, and made specialized
presentations.
"I brought up the practice test [on
a computer screen] and I showed
them, this is how you zoom in and
out, here's how you highlight, or use
the strikethrough option. If you want
to create a fraction, here's how you do
it," he said.
Picking Priorities
Mr. Salonen said he wasn't concerned
about the time spent on testtechnology
preparation, since it was
only one hour: 30 minutes demonstrating,
and another 30 letting students
practice in the computer lab.
But how much time spent on testspecific
skills-or even more broadly
applicable computer skills-is too
much? That's a question principals
and teachers are wrestling with.
"In our district, we've been debating
when to start keyboarding," said John
J. Decker, the principal of Mellette Elementary
School in Watertown, S.D.
Currently, 1st graders are starting
with a free online game called Dance
Mat, where they pick out letters one
at a time, and work up to typing
their names, Mr. Decker said. In 2nd
grade, students begin using an online
program called Type To Learn three
times a week. Third and 4th graders
continue it twice a week, and by 5th
grade, it's down to weekly.
While he sees the value of the keyboarding
instruction, Mr. Decker has
his doubts, too. He notices that some
2nd graders don't yet have the finemotor
skills to easily master finger
placement on the keyboard. And he
agonizes about the time spent on the
typing programs when the district
recently invested $160,000 in an online
supplemental math and reading
program.
"I don't want to siphon time away
from that with the typing skills," he
said. "It's a balancing act. I'm always
asking myself, 'What can I supplant?'
What I need is more time in the
school day."
Coverage of the implementation of
college- and career-ready standards is
supported in part by a grant from the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation. Education
Week retains sole editorial control over
the content of this coverage.
Eric Risberg/AP

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Education Week - May 13, 2015

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